Happy Endings | Review

While characters search for their true identity, – so does film.

Delivering a dramedy that dodges easy characterizations and refreshingly doesn’t feel obligated to make deep connections between stories Don Roos’ third time out as a director also feels liked a removed experiment – one that goes through the motions, that tries on many different hats by exploring the pity, the anger, the sorrow which are affecting the smorgasbord of sexually-complicated, flawed characters. While actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is the exact sort of ingredient required for such a film, viewers may find it difficult task to full appreciate Happy Endings – mostly because they’ll feel as if they barely walked a couple of footsteps in some of these screen personas.

Such as in his 98’ dramedy of The Opposite of Sex, this spins itself in a common narrative vocabulary where characters make a succession of bad choices and the viewer watches them squander about. Populated by lots of people hurting, complaining, lying and hoping that no one will notice, this is basically a coming out party of sorts which begins with the tale of 30-somethings woman dealing with her secretive past. Lisa Kudrow’s character’s mangled spirit and anguish over an adoption does not dominate the screenplay, – instead the tale also happens to look into other people’s closets – revealing a theme of birth and life with the sub stories that looks at abortion and one that plays with frozen donor sperm.

Sort of when a rich aunt comes into your home unannounced and drops off a half a dozen suitcases, there are plenty of moments where the film’s pacing tends to freeze – much of the blame for the ineffectiveness in this intertwined formula comes from the fact that the film’s tone is affected by the many intersections which don’t follow one another especially well and as a result dilutes our interest in the large array of characters. Despite the fact that Roos assembles a fine cast of talents that the viewer won’t mind watching, even when Roos’ includes some back-story told through some inserted titled cards, such split screen shots may carry some humor, but this extra content on where the character has been and what the character is doing 20 years down the road hardly makes the profound connections needed to make the viewer care about these screen personalities.

Roos delivers some honest characters but the parody element brought to the tone of the film doesn’t make the desired bridge with the profound damaged psyches of some of the principle characters. For the two-plus hours of a world full of flaws, the best elements to be found are an au natural Maggie Gyllenhaal, her singing voice and her sway and an admiral role for Kudrow who finally finds a role to fit her age. Unfortunately, it’s never an encouraging sign for when the ending of a film sails away with a karaoke-tied bit. If Happy Endings could have included some unhappy or loose endings then maybe in the end everything wouldn’t have come across as so trivial.

Rating 1.5 stars