Accidents Happen is a chronicle of the dysfunctional Conway family. I managed to catch it at the Tribeca Film Festival. It begins as a flashback to 1974; 7 year old Billy Conway is watering the front lawn when their unsavory next-door-neighbor Mr. Smolensky (we're told that he was a no-good philanderer by a narrator) accidentally sets himself afire and dies while barbecuing. The scene is done in super slow-motion and is photographed impressively. Nonetheless the director makes the mistake of relying on a narrator to explain the back story for the first ten minutes of the film (the narrator is quite annoying).
The second accident is also described through the narrator. The Conways are driving home after attending a drive-in movie when they're all involved in a car accident. The daughter is killed and another son, Gene, is left a vegetable in an irreversible coma.
We then flash forward to 1982 where we're introduced to the present day Conway family. Billy doesn't get along with his brother, Larry, who has a drinking problem. Their mother Gloria (played by Geena Davis) constantly relies on foul-mouthed epithets to berate her children and is on the verge of divorce from Ray, the emotionally distant father.
Billy ends up befriending Doug Post, a teenager who lives next door. Together they shoplift items from a convenience store while wearing nothing more than ski masks. When Billy rolls a bowling ball down the street, Doug's father swerves his car to avoid it and ends up dying in the ensuing car wreck. The police conclude that the father committed suicide because there were no skid marks. Billy and Doug finally confess that they were responsible for the accident but Gloria convinces the police that the teenagers had made up the story in order for the Post family to collect the insurance money.
The film ends with the death of comatose brother Gene. His death leads to a catharsis for the two living brothers and both parents embrace them at the end signaling a new beginning for the family.
The film's scenarist can't decide whether we should laugh or cry for the victims of all the accidents that happen in first half of the film. Are we watching a black comedy as the narrator cheerfully chronicles the demise of the hapless Smolensky? And what about the unfunny scene where the Post family friend pays an overly emotional, over-the-top condolence call to the family following Mr. Post's death in the car accident? While Gloria still pines away for her dead daughter and bemoans the fate of her comatose son, she's more the stuff of black comedy with her foul language and odd behavior. The same goes for Ray's ditsy fiancé who is depicted as completely lame-brained.
I had even more trouble with the second half of Accidents Happen. Now we're asked to have sympathy for all these quirky characters who we've grown to dislike in the first half. We now understand why the teenagers were acting out—they were unable to connect with their emotions due to earlier traumas where either family members were killed or severely injured. Everything is forgiven when Billy and Larry are able to 'emote' after Gene's death. If only adolescent angst was so easily resolved in real life! In the end, 'Accidents Happen' wants to have it both ways. As a black comedy, it seeks to laugh at the dysfunctional characters who inhabit a dysfunctional universe. But then the film's scenarists reverse themselves—the loonies are not loonies after all; in fact they're all a bunch of sensitive souls! If you believe in such transformations, then perhaps I can also convince you to buy a share of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The second accident is also described through the narrator. The Conways are driving home after attending a drive-in movie when they're all involved in a car accident. The daughter is killed and another son, Gene, is left a vegetable in an irreversible coma.
We then flash forward to 1982 where we're introduced to the present day Conway family. Billy doesn't get along with his brother, Larry, who has a drinking problem. Their mother Gloria (played by Geena Davis) constantly relies on foul-mouthed epithets to berate her children and is on the verge of divorce from Ray, the emotionally distant father.
Billy ends up befriending Doug Post, a teenager who lives next door. Together they shoplift items from a convenience store while wearing nothing more than ski masks. When Billy rolls a bowling ball down the street, Doug's father swerves his car to avoid it and ends up dying in the ensuing car wreck. The police conclude that the father committed suicide because there were no skid marks. Billy and Doug finally confess that they were responsible for the accident but Gloria convinces the police that the teenagers had made up the story in order for the Post family to collect the insurance money.
The film ends with the death of comatose brother Gene. His death leads to a catharsis for the two living brothers and both parents embrace them at the end signaling a new beginning for the family.
The film's scenarist can't decide whether we should laugh or cry for the victims of all the accidents that happen in first half of the film. Are we watching a black comedy as the narrator cheerfully chronicles the demise of the hapless Smolensky? And what about the unfunny scene where the Post family friend pays an overly emotional, over-the-top condolence call to the family following Mr. Post's death in the car accident? While Gloria still pines away for her dead daughter and bemoans the fate of her comatose son, she's more the stuff of black comedy with her foul language and odd behavior. The same goes for Ray's ditsy fiancé who is depicted as completely lame-brained.
I had even more trouble with the second half of Accidents Happen. Now we're asked to have sympathy for all these quirky characters who we've grown to dislike in the first half. We now understand why the teenagers were acting out—they were unable to connect with their emotions due to earlier traumas where either family members were killed or severely injured. Everything is forgiven when Billy and Larry are able to 'emote' after Gene's death. If only adolescent angst was so easily resolved in real life! In the end, 'Accidents Happen' wants to have it both ways. As a black comedy, it seeks to laugh at the dysfunctional characters who inhabit a dysfunctional universe. But then the film's scenarists reverse themselves—the loonies are not loonies after all; in fact they're all a bunch of sensitive souls! If you believe in such transformations, then perhaps I can also convince you to buy a share of the Brooklyn Bridge.