DARK HORSE ***

When Todd Solondz hits the bulls-eye, which he does every now and then, he can be devastating. I still think "Happiness" is one of the finest of all American films and "Dark Horse", which fundamentally follows the same misanthropic path, is almost as good. It's not a nice film and there are no really nice people in it and, of course, Solondz is inviting us to feel superior to his characters but who else is putting these people on the screen and giving them their place in the sun, (though spending 90 minutes in their company can prove something of an endurance test).

"Dark Horse" is the story of overweight, socially insecure and very bad-tempered Abe, (a totally terrific Jordan Gelber), who works for his dad and still lives at home, (his parents are a brilliant Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow). When he meets pretty but equally awkward Miranda at a wedding, (Selma Blair), he stalks her and then proposes marriage. Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, she accepts.

Naturally they turn out to be the odd couple to beat all odd couples and it's impossible to like either of them, (feeling sorry for them doesn't even enter into the equation). Of course, everyone in a Solondz picture is pretty unpleasant, (the most ironic thing Solondz probably ever did was make the paedophile father in "Happiness" the nicest person in the movie). They are, however, brilliantly played; Donna Murphy as the father's dream secretary, (if there is a sympathetic character in the film, it's her), Justin Bartha as Abe's brother, Zachary Booth as his cousin and an appalling Aasif Mandvi as Miranda's former lover who is also probably gay.

Mercifully, most of "Dark Horse" is someone's dream so the horror of spending time with these awful people is tempered by a large dose of surreal humour, albeit a typically sick Solondz sense of humour. So not a nice film then, but a brilliant one and one of the best acted American movies in years.