10 Movies That Made You Sympathise With Terrible People

Moving on to a film which contains a cavalcade of damaged, depressed, depraved characters, Todd Solondz’s Happiness stares into the abyss that is us humans.

The word “humans” must be emphasised here, because no matter how amoral these characters appear to be, Solondz harrowingly reminds us that these people are all human. We are sympathetic because these people are completely pathetic. And Happiness uses the blackest of humour to stop us being alienated from these people. Of all the characters in the story though, this entry will focus on Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker), another paedophile.

Bill is a therapist dealing with his own dark, dark demons. By introducing Bill, a paedophile, in the context of therapy and understanding the darkest depths of human desire, Solondz opens the door for the viewer to feel pathos for Bill as his life unravels. Bill is a terrible man. He molests two boys and admits to his son that he has perversions towards him.

But he retains his humanity, since the whole point of the film is to exploring how we humans use desire (often sexual ones) to fill the void in our lives where happiness should be. And Bill knows he is unhappy. He knows his acts are terrible, but he is so disillusioned with the world he can’t help it, which only furthers his own pain and anger.

An uncomfortable but stunning portrait of an all-too-real man.