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Welcome to the Dollhouse is the life story of every nerd who passed through the halls of junior high and lived to tell the tale.The story stars the hopelessly awkward and unpopular,Dawn Wiener AKA WIENERDOG. Dawn is an unattractive, bespectacled girl who you hope to god, has some special talent or something beautiful about her stands out sadly, there is nothing. Dawn isn't a particuarly gifted musician,artist or thinker. I suppose that other movies spoiled me in that repsect, atleast if the character is horribly unattractive, they always seem to have something incredibly special about them, but that's the harsheness of reality, many in real life, don't and Dawn wiener is as real as anyone else.
Dawn is tormented daily by her class mates with out mercy,their taunts reminds us how cruel children really can be. The names ugly,lesbo or dog face are all too familiar to some of us and when we hear them, we know sadly exactly how Dawn feels. Her school life is hellious, but unfortunately home life, isn't much better. Dawn's parents lavish attention on Missy, Dawn's manipulative and bratty, attractive little sister, who spends her days prancing around in a little tutu and makes it her life's mission to cause as much trouble for Dawn as she possibly can. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I kept praying that Missy would just drop over at some point in the movie. Dawn's other sibling Mark, referred to as "king of the nerds" by a classmate of Dawn's, spends his days fretting over getting into a good college.
Everyone in Dawn's life pushes her away, with the exception of two individuals. Ralphie aka "Faggot", is Dawn's only friend and alot of times, her punching bag. Dawn lashes out at him several times through out the movie, but Ralphie always stands by her an accepts her abuse. The other is Steve the "hunky" classmate of her brother, Mark. Steve, is the only other one besides ralphie, who doesn't push Dawn away. Also in the mix is a odd relationship she forms with her biggest tormenters, Brendan, who we learn is just as unpopular and unliked as Dawn, the only reason he survives in the halls, is because instead of being submissive, Brendan bullies and angrily punches his way through.
Dawn's life mirrors reality perfectly.....
There is never a time in the movie where she shakes her hair loose and removes her glasses to expose an unknown beauty. She doesn't get the guy and the whole junior high world doesn't suddenly fall to it's knees and profess it's love. Life goes on for her in the end, just as it always had in the begining-shitty. Of course the movie isn't as bleak as it sounds, there are some particuarly funny scenes in it, then there are some that make us laugh but at the same time, we're not sure if that's the appropriate response, we're not sure if we should be laughing or cringing. Dawn wiener is the perfect tragic nerdy hero to act out all of our worst memories of junior high hell.
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Where do I begin with this movie... Although there were some of the same ole predictable boring things that have appeared in countless other stories, this movie is a thousand times different than any of those same ole predictable stories. This movie charmed me and left me spell bound.
The girl on the bridge, is delightful beautiful-looking black and white french flick about love,luck,and chance. Our main character in this flick just so happens to be a nymphomaniac(No,this isn't going where you think it's going ,the funky porn music isn't going to kick in anytime soon so forget it!).For the first couple of minutes,we hear our young nymphette, Adele discussing her hard luck in love to some unseen panel. It seems as though Adele has a hard time distingushing sex from love, she doesn't realize that the two are not always connected. Time and time again, Adele gives her heart, but those she willing hands it to, cast it aside. Depressed and tierd of life, the next scene we see our main character, she's standing on a bridge getting ready to take the pluge into the icy river that flows benethe her,until a intense-looking and mysterious,older stranger steps out of the shadows and pitches Adele an offer
The stranger's name is Gabor and the offer is becoming his assistant. Odd, but its a good place to scout for assistants when you learn Gabors profession(He's a knife thrower).She rejects Gabors offer and takes the plunge. Gabor dives into the water and thus begins the start of a interesting partnership.
The telepathic bond these two develop over a period of time allows for some new and amazing heights in Gabors career as well as some luck when hitting the casinos. Before long it becomes apparent that the two are made for each other and are incomplete with out the other. Just as the dollar bill that Gabor tears in half to illustrate to Adele, when brought together both sides have meaning, when ripped in half, both sides are completely useless.
Although the attraction the two feel for one another is great, there is never a time when see Adele and Gabor maul each other like two drunken teenagers. We never actually see any sex kissing or touching for that matter (except for Adeles continious and meaningless flings with random strangers) it seems the knife throwing has become the subsitute for sex. The lack of it makes for one of the films most intimate and heart stopping scenes.
Don't brush this movie aside because you have this strange feeling you've seen this in countless other movies because YOU HAVEN'T. If you have the oppertunity, rent it or buy it, you will not be disappointed!
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