If you can imagine a postscript to Todd Solondz's "Happiness" but
done as a kind of comic-strip in bright, rainbow colours, (Ed Lachman
did the photography), then you're about halfway to getting "Life During
Wartime". A sequel of sorts to "Happiness", this takes place several
years after the events of that film but Solondz has completely recast
it, (in one case a character who was white in the first film is now an
African-American), and opens the film with an almost identical reprise of "Happiness'" opening scene. 
It really shouldn't work at all; surely "Happiness" was good enough 'to
stand alone' but it does work thanks to Solondz's skewed, if deeply
funny, vision of humanity and to his extraordinary new cast who fit
perfectly into the shoes of their predecessors, even down to that racial
crossover. It's almost impossible to single out anyone over anyone else
but as the three tragic-comic sisters Allison Janney, Shirely Henderson
and Ally Sheedy are terrific while Irish actor Ciaran Hinds gives a
much steelier edge to the paedophile father than did Dylan Baker. Of the
new characters Michael Lerner is outstanding as Janney's Jewish suitor.
This is indeed a black comedy that can rightly take its place beside
the movie it follows and it simply shouldn't be missed.
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