With PALINDROMES, fiercely independent writer-director Todd Solondz (HAPPINESS, STORYTELLING) places the topic of abortion under his scathing microscope. This time around, Solondz takes an even more daring approach by casting seven different actors to play the film's lead role. Aviva Victor is the young New Jersey cousin of the recently deceased Dawn Wiener (the heroine from Solondz's Sundance-winning WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE). Living under the watchful eye of her overprotective parents Joyce (Ellen Barkin) and Steve (Richard Masur), Aviva dreams of the day when she will be able to call herself a mother--a wish that is prematurely granted after an adolescent tryst. Unfortunately, her parents will not allow her to have the baby under any circumstances, which causes Aviva to run away from home. On the road, she falls for a lonely trucker (Stephen Adly Guirgis) and winds up at the home of the ultra-evangelical Mama Sunshine (Debra Monk), who cares for a wide variety of disabled children. But when the trucker reappears and it becomes quite clear that the bond he shares with Aviva is not just some perverted fantasy, the relationship builds to its inevitably tragic conclusion. Solondz's biting satire is a bold statement in support of a mother's right to choose, but it also takes a surprisingly humane approach to those on the other side of the argument. Featuring standout performances by Barkin, Monk, and Guirgis, PALINDROMES makes a bold, powerful statement.

Theatrical Release: APRIL 15, 2005 (LIMITED)

This film screened at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

This film was included in the 42nd New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

DVD Features:

Region [unknown]
Keep Case
Additional Release Material:
Trailers: Theatrical Trailer

Ellen Barkin: American Actress, DINER (1980)
Debra Monk: Actress/...Madison County
Stephen Adly Guirgis: Actor, PALINDROMES (2004)
Jennifer Jason Leigh: American Actress, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE
Richard Masur: American Actor

Todd Solondz: Director/Screenwriter

Derrick Tseng: Coproducer, MARYAM (2002)
Mike Ryan: Producer/JUNEBUG

Todd Solondz: Director/Screenwriter

Nathan Larson: Composer

"[C]onsistently, horrifyingly funny and sharp-witted..."
"[A] memorable provocation....[Solondz] is peerless at inventing new and visionary ways to get under your skin..."
"PALINDROMES offers many pleasures. Its characters are basically live-action cartoons, but several of the actors, making the most of Solondz's excellent dialogue, turn them into charming monster..."
"Solondz likes to put the screws to moral hypocrisy. As always, he goes too far. As always, you don't want to look away."
"It's sometimes sinister, sometimes rapturous. Its strange experimentalism upholds a determination to avoid all accepted notions of the norm. It makes you wonder."
"Todd Solondz delivers his most sustained cinematic experiment so far....His clammy, darkly hilarious fairy tale will stay with you."