After Welcome to the Dollhouse, director Todd Solondz received media attention and was approached by a number of companies, a situation which could have enabled him to nail down a big-budget movie with top stars. Instead, he chose to make this dark comedy-drama of perversions and twisted lives, described by producer Christine Vachon as "a nonjudgmental film about a pedophile." The subject matter created problems of casting and financing. Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) explodes with anger after rejection in a restaurant from Joy Jordan (Jane Adams), one of a trio of middle-class New Jersey sisters. Joy's sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), a housewife with three kids, is married to psychiatrist Bill (Dylan Baker). One of Bill's patients is lonely, overweight Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Allen is obsessed with his glamorous neighbor, successful author Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), who is Joy's other sister. Bill has fantasies of turning an assault rifle on families in a park, masturbates to teen magazine photos, and develops an unhealthy interest in Johnny (Evan Silverberg), classmate of his 11-year-old son, Billy (Rufus Read). After a telephone sales job, Joy moves on to substitute teach at an adult education class. Falling prey to insensitive Russian cabdriver Vlad (Jared Harris), Joy is left seduced, abandoned and ripped off. Allen's series of sexually harassing phone calls to Helen come to an end when she challenges him to come next door and carry out his sexual threats. She succeeds in calling his bluff; instead of going over, he realigns his frustrations toward Kristina (Camryn Manheim), another neighbor. In Florida, the sisters' parents, Lenny and Mona Jordan (Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser) find their marriage collapsing after 40 years. Lenny has sparked the interest of divorcee Diane Freed (Elizabeth Ashley), but he actually would prefer to be alone. The path to happiness, it seems, is littered with dreams, despair, and abnormalities. Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Some background on the making of Happiness can be found in the book, Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter (Avon, 1998) by Christine Vachon with David Edelstein.