'Life During Wartime,' a distant sequel

Todd Solondz's "Happiness," a 1998 comedy-drama about three sisters and their not-so-happy lives, still stands as one of the most brilliantly appalling movies ever made.

Given that one of its central characters was a child-raping therapist who was not only likable but downright hilarious, it's astounding the film ever got made. Try greenlighting that today.

More than a decade later, Solondz revisits the Jordan sisters in "Life During Wartime." Chronologically it is a sequel, but not a single principal actor from the original is here. The cast is entirely new.

This may have been entirely by choice, but Solondz's replacements feel somewhat random. Ciáran Hinds brings a new gravitas to Bill Maplewood, the pedophile originated by Dylan Baker. But Shirley Henderson, as the wide-eyed folk singer Joy Jordan, is merely a Jane Adams look-alike. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who memorably played a creepy crank caller, is replaced by a towering black actor, Michael Kenneth Williams.

Solondz still has a knack for squirm-inducing situations; one exchange between Bill and an aging bar girl (Charlotte Rampling, fiercer than ever) is absolutely hair-raising. But too many scenes involve two actors conversing in a room, as if Solondz needed to shoot fast and avoid editing. "Life During Wartime" feels like a labor of love, which for fans of "Happiness" may have to be enough.

PLOT The beleaguered Jordan family, from 1998's "Happiness," soldiers on. Rating Unrated (language, adult themes)

CAST Shirley Henderson, Ally Sheedy, Allison Janney, Paul Reubens

LENGTH 1:37

PLAYING AT Cinema Arts Centre and Manhasset Cinemas

BOTTOM LINE New faces play familiar characters, which can be jarring. But Solondz still has a genius for squirm-inducing humor.