Welcome to the Dollhouse Reviews

Since this movie had a pretty good reputation (above all Roger Ebert was really enthusiastic about it), I was really eager to check it out. As usual with Todd Solondz, it was a rather realistic dark tale with some pitch black humor and we were far from all the glitter and glamour displayed in your usual Hollywood high-school comedy. And that was definitely the main quality in this movie, the fact that even the popular kids didn’t look like top models and, above all, it displayed how high-school (and, in this case, Junior High) is pretty much a long succession of embarrassing moments and, basically, for the average kid, you feel miserable most of the time. So, all the details, the dialogs, the look, the characters were really spot on but, still, somehow, I wasn’t quite blown away by the whole thing. I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood but I had a rather hard time to care about the main character and what she was going through. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I thought that the whole thing was more sad and depressing than actually funny. Anyway, to conclude, it is pretty much one of the most realistic high-school movies ever made and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Solondz’ work.

First of all, I didn't really have high hopes for this film, as it's a 'coming of age' film, and I can not stand them types of films, they're usually boring, typical and really stupid. And so I thought this film had a good chance of being the same. In a way I was wrong. It was watchable. I can't say I was fond of the romance parts, but after that was out of the way...it was O.K, I was getting into it. Defiantly not a bad film whatsoever.

This film follows a really unattractive young girl, played by Heather Matarazzo who is rather unattractive in real life, it's not like that TV show, 'Ugly Betty' because once you get all that crap of America Ferrera's face, she's actually not at all ugly. But this was a different case, Matarazzo is rather ugly, and so the story and the film was very believable. The unattractive girl is named Dawn Wiener - Now I don't know if you noticed, but her name is quite unfortunate. She gets bullied a lot at school, and at home, as she has a sweet, pretty and innocent looking younger sister, and so it's already rather obvious what the situation is there. Well her sister gets much more attention, maybe too much for her own good, and so Dawn is ignored most of the time, and when she's not being ignored, she's being told off by her unfit parents for not worshipping her sister. But it doesn't end there, as she also has a brother, he's not a suck-up, but he seemed to get more attention than Dawn got from her parents. And all of that going on in the film, I could defiantly relate to how Dawn was feeling, whether it's with your siblings or just other various people. It's not fair.

As that story and situation continues through the whole film, in other parts Dawn -I think- starts to develop some sort of crush on this hideous biker man, obviously a high-school drop out. But as he was well I'd say at least in his mid-twenties, she was about...what twelve? anyway, he doesn't give her a second glimpse as 1. she's very unattractive and 2. she's way to young, but Dawn doesn't quite get that...well, that's not until she catches the biker dude and some other girl making-out in her kitchen. That's when I think she 'gets it'. And so that's another story that goes on during this film. That's actually my least favourite story in this film, as I don't find that sort of stuff the least bit interesting. I was much more interested in the family situations and troubles going on.

The last bits and bobs of the story are, Dawn gets bullied a lot at school, she gets threatened by all the students. Some really disturbingly harsh bullying tactics in the film.

Getting near to the end of the film, Dawn's little sister is kidnapped, and this part of the film I really wasn't sure about, it just seemed to fake. I didn't really believe it. I know it's quite capable of happening, but I just thought that it wasn't a very well thought out part in the film. I was quite happy watching a difficult family with lots of faults, that was interesting to me, but the whole kidnapping thing spoilt it I think.

Soon, Dawn's sister is soon found and returned safely back home. Though quite a bit before she was found Dawn ran off to, I think it was New York, yes, I think. To run away. Her parents obviously did not notice that their other daughter had gone missing, as they were to focused on their other preferred and favourite daughter, but that begs the question and thought, I bet her parents and family still wouldn't have noticed she had gone missing, even if there other much more loved daughter hadn't gone missing beforehand. But like I said earlier, Dawn's sister is found and returned back home, unharmed. And Dawn later returns home.

Although some may think I'm taking this film much too seriously, I think perhaps I am. But what's the point watching a film is you aren't going to take it seriously, although I didn't go as creepy as to hold a notebook while watching the film, writing endless trivial flaws of the film, which is what movie-buffs do, I took it fairly seriously and watched.

Overall, I think this film is highly watchable stuff, I'd certainly recommend it. The points I made on what I didn't like and the basic negatives, may not effect your viewing of this film. That could just be a me thing. I don't believe this is any ordinary coming-of-age film.

With the realism of the coming of age teen life themes that the film "Kids" started, Dollhouse seems to continue. This time, the plot is fitted into a "more linear" storyline, with the intent of structuring the movie in an order that makes it more of a digestable film for general audiences, despite some of its sharp edges.
This is a hard-nosed depiction of those who are quietly & easily overlooked & who tend to make up a larger percentage of the student school population than many of us want to or even care to notice.