| HAPPY ENDINGS |
 2005 - USADirector: Don Roos
- Reviewed by Eric
Happy Endings did not disappoint on any of these levels. It disappointed a little only in its self-consciousnes, which manifests itself in smart-alecky title cards and plot developments that seem to spring from a desire to see how fucked-up things can get before the requisite happy endings at the end of the film. There are three main plots followed in the film. In the first, Kudrow plays a woman named Mamie who had her step-brother Charley's (Steve Coogan) child when she was a teenager. Years later, a wannabe filmmaker named Nicky (Jesse Bradford) offers her the chance to find her long-lost chid, but only if she lets him film the reunion for his film. Then there is the same step-brother, who has turned out to be gay. He's convinced that their lesbian friends (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke) have secretly had his boyfriend's baby without telling him. Then there is Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who has sex with the gay Otis (Jason Ritter) and falls in love with his dad (Tom Arnold). Many, many complications ensue. Of course, the title is a little ironic, since the happy endings are the result of so much human ugliness. Each and every character in this film is at times selfish and nasty, but it doesn't feel natural, more like a desire on Roos's part to shock his audience. The one-liners are funny, but do nothing to deepen the characters except to make them less and less likable. For example, after the lesbians find out Charley has lied to them about his boyfriend having a terminal illness, she screams at him, "YOU LITTLE FAGGOT!" It's funny because it's shocking, but it doesn't feel like something she might say. I sound like I'm complaining a lot, but it's only in retrospect. It's a long film, but it went by amazingly quickly. I laughed a lot. Kudrow impresses. The smart-alecky title cards, I have to admit, were pretty funny. It's just that the movie is a mess. It is one complication after another, cutting between three storylines already too full of complications, and with little in common thematically as far as I could see. Happy Endings is clever, funny, and shocking, but only for the sake of being clever, funny, and shocking. |
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Since the only thing I know about Don Roos is his directorial debut,
The Opposite of Sex, there are a few things I expected when I walked
into his new film, Happy Endings. I was expecting severely fucked-up
characters. I was expecting snarky one-liners. I was expecting a film
that embraced shocking subject matter. And I was expecting that Roos
would know how to use Lisa Kudrow correctly. She's had her share of
big-screen flops, but anyone who has seen The Opposite of Sex knows
that Kudrow is much more than Phoebe on Friends. (And you know what? I
liked Marci X. Shut up.)