New film from 'Teeth' director has less bite

If there's one thing "Happy Tears" lacks, it's vaginas with teeth. "Teeth," director Mitchell Lichtenstein's first feature film, was an ironically appealing cult favorite and a modern-day spin on the age-old myth of vagina dentata. His decidedly more conventional second film, "Happy Tears," pairs a first-rate cast with a somewhat standard script. 

Indie darling Parker Posey and infamous cougar Demi Moore star as Jayne and Laura, two sisters who are forced to return to their home in Pittsburgh to take care of their dementia-stricken (but still sexually busy) father Joe (played perfectly by Rip Torn). We are introduced to Joe as he soils himself and his daughters have to clean up the mess in the shower. This same scenario was played out recently in "The Savages," but here it's much more graphic and cringe-inducing.

The film presents Joe during the onset of his disease, allowing us to glimpse who this man really is before he's taken completely over the edge. He's irrational and vulgar, but also crudely funny, and takes refuge in singing and playing the blues on his guitar. Joe denies that he needs full-time care, believing that his girlfriend Shelly (Ellen Barkin) is a proper caretaker. Barkin plays Shelly with full-fledged delicious skankiness. She says she's a nurse (and wears a stethoscope around her neck to prove this fact) but it's obvious from her clothes and her grime-filled nails that she's a crack addict.

Posey is relatable as the sister who lives in her own fantasy world and can't admit the truth about her father. She escapes from reality by distracting herself with memories and reveries that appear in the film as elaborate fantasy sequences. Jayne has tried to give up drinking and drugs, but she doesn't really have the willpower; she drinks and smokes pot with her sister to calm her nerves.

While Jayne is desperate to have a child, Laura is overwhelmed by family life, which includes working hard, caring for her children, and dealing with her less-than-perfect husband. Moore is a natural fit for her earthy straightforwardness. She sees the hard truth while her sister refuses to.
Joe teased his daughters all their lives about a buried treasure somewhere in their backyard, and this idea becomes Jayne's comfort. Throughout the film, they search for it and try to come to terms with Joe's illness while dealing with a multitude of other personal problems. But although Lichtenstein is adept at creating interesting situations and comic moments, he fails to put it all together into a cogent whole.

It's great to see a male director with such an affinity and respect for female leads, but the film falls short of the inventiveness and coherence he accomplished with "Teeth." One can only hope his next movie will be weird again.