Dark Horse (2012)

“Dark Horse” is another look at alienation and aimlessness in contemporary suburbia by New Jersey filmmaker Todd Solondz. This one centers on thirty-something Abe (Jordan Gelber), a depressed, slovenly, overweight man-child still living in the room he grew up in—complete with walls and shelves decorated with posters and lined with countless toy collectibles, an obsessive hobby carried over from childhood—at his parent’s house.

Selma Blair and Jordan Gelber
in "Dark Horse."

Abe's typical day involves working for his father (Christopher Walken) at a boring office job he hates, taking life advice from a mousy secretary (Donna Murphy) who transforms into a seductress during a bizarre dream sequence, and sneaking out to the local toy store where he argues with supercilious retail clerks. But Abe's world changes when he meets his possible soul mate in the waifish Miranda (Selma Blair), a similarly moribund introvert still living at home, and announces plans to marry her.

As romantic partners go, the awkward moments between Abe and Miranda generate about as much spark as a wet book of matches, so when Solondz unleashes a cringe-worthy third act twist—Miranda reveals she has hepatitis B and may have passed it along to Abe—the results seem like a desperate reach for sympathy.

Solondz became a kind of poet of the odd after his masterful debut “Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995), a brilliantly caustic and surprisingly moving coming of age satire about a lonely, outcast girl struggling with family and school and the cruel vicissitudes of growing up in a world that never seems to understand her. The characters are somewhat similar, if older, in “Dark Horse,” but the new movie is a disappointment, dreary and lifeless—lacking the sardonic wit, razor sharp edge and heart that made a movie like “Welcome to the Dollhouse” special.