Not wanting what you have while not having what you is a universal prescription for misery. It drives Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) to kill himself, it drives Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to his shrink, it drives Allen's shrink Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker) to lust after little boys, it drives Joy Jordan (Jane Adams) into the arms of the philandering Russian cab driver/thief Vlad (Jared Harris), it drives Helen Jordan (Lara Flynn Boyle) to put an obscene phone caller on auto dial, it drives Lenny Jordan (Ben Gazzara) to want to be alone, and it drives Kristina (Camryn Manheim) to...well, you'll find out.

Todd Solondz's unflinching look at one of human nature's least appealing propensities is the seed for this very potent, pitch black comedy.

It's not an easy thing to keep so many stories (most of the characters in the film are in crisis) up in the air but Solondz does a masterful job by structuring the story around the family and acquaintances of the three Jordan sisters, serving up one seemless segue after another.

When I describe the film as being pitch black, I mean exactly that. Farce is only comedy for the audience. All of the characters are going through hell. In Solondz's world, it's all too easy to sympathize with the characters and (excuse the phrase) feel their pain. When Mona's (Louise Lasser) husband Lenny explains that he's not leaving her for another woman but because he needs to be alone, a sixty-year-old woman in the row in front of me began sobbing.

Yes, when Vlad picks up Joy's guitar and begins singing "You Light Up My Life" to her, it's funny, but the fact that Joy so desperately needs someone to love her that she blinds herself to such a transparent ploy is very sad.