Synopsis

Several dysfunctional New Jersey families pursue intimacy, validation, and escape while hiding desires and shame that polite suburbia cannot contain. Lonely adults, troubled parents, frustrated sisters, and isolated neighbors move through intersecting crises involving sex, betrayal, fantasy, and violence. Their attempts to find connection produce moments of bleak comedy, exposing how ordinary hopes for happiness can coexist with profoundly disturbing impulses.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 1998, where it won the FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize.

• October Films originally planned to distribute the movie but dropped it after objections from its corporate parent, Universal, concerning the storyline involving pedophilia. Good Machine Releasing subsequently established a distribution operation for the film.

• Patricia Arquette was originally attached to the production but withdrew because of an illness in her family. The filmmakers also had difficulty finding an established performer willing to play the controversial character of Bill.

• The film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA and was ultimately released in the United States without a rating, making conventional advertising and theatrical bookings more difficult.

• The screenplay received a 1999 Golden Globe nomination.

• The Criterion Collection later issued the film in a new 4K digital restoration supervised by cinematographer Maryse Alberti.