Life During Wartime: Devastatingly Dark

In the Movie Slut's humble opinion, there are two reasons, and only two, to see director Todd Solondz's wickedly dark new movie.
The first is the performance of Irish actor Ciaron Hinds, who plays a tortured pedophile just released from prison — a man who knows that despite years of counseling, tons of medication and profound remorse, he can neither be cured nor controlled.
The second is the breathtakingly exquisite Vivaldi music that accompanies a recurrent scene that haunts the stricken man.
Other than that, the movie is an absurd story about a Jewish family seen through the eyes of an about-to-be bar mitzva boy. Okay, there are some laughs, but too much time is spent blathering on about forgiving and forgetting and the characters are too pathologically out there to either identify with or believe in. It all takes place in a post 9/11 world unlike any you've seen. Thank the Lord.