Happy Endings

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My wife rented this yesterday and we watched it last night. I'd never heard of it. After watching about 15 minutes of it, I thought "What in the world is this," because it was so frenetic. As written in the summary, there are several stories simultaneously being told, and it's kinda hard to keep everything straight. But, after awhile it starts to come together and you begin to pull for one or another of the characters. I've never watched "Friends," so I haven't seen Lisa Kudrow much, but this was a good performance as a girl who alternates between spineless and fed up. I hadn't seen much of the rest of the cast before, so I can't comment. I also think it's interesting that Tom Arnold was first known for being married to Rosanne Barr, but it seems that lately he's gotten many various supporting roles, enough so that I find myself thinking: "Yeah, he was married to Rosanne whats-her-name?" Anyway, I liked this movie. Yes, it's bizarre, quirky, odd, whatever you want to call it, but it ends well. It's one to watch. One more thing: it has many spots where there is a black sidebar with kind of "footnote" information. I found myself eventually pausing the DVD to read these things, because I didn't want to miss the music and a bit of action that might be taking place. I wish they would have just paused the movie at these points, and they were worthwhile explanations. Thumbs up!

i might say as a precursor that i dislike episodic pieces...but this movie really takes the cake of awful...we move from one character to the next with idiotic contrivances that are motivated by little more than the directors fancy...the intertitles are juvenile at best and while initially I thought them an interesting tactic are overused to the point when introducing gil and charlie says they "have been together for five years and will never have a three way" it was like watching a bad script and reading it at the same time...the only redeeming character was maggie gyllenhall as jude...i could of watched a whole movie about her...although in this one we never know where she is coming from or why? but hey who cares about that stuff.. the only person we have back story on is mamie and charlie and if the film followed them it could have been its saving grace but no we are supposed to care and follow a series of other characters that we have no knowledge of or connection to...i'm not sure how long the movie was, but it felt well over two hours the movie could have been cut down to about zero minutes and it would save a lot of people a horrible waste of time...sorry about the bad grammar the film really had me peeved

The only reason I'm not giving the full ten stars is that a couple of plot point moments seemed to go by too fast, but it's just as possible that I was too slow for them. This hilarious and shrewdly observed comedy with at least a dozen lines worthy of immediate classic status ("Nothing says I love you like blackmail") , and a greater multitude of sly subtle laughs demands a smart viewer to follow some of the breathless but always plausible twists of fate and human perversity. I loved The Opposite of Sex and this one takes Dan Roos to an even higher plateau. There is so much compassion and understanding and good-heartedness amid all the comedy that a Zen master might have made it. The title cards that glide in and out are like witty little footnotes that wink at the omniscience of Victorian fiction while conveying the same degree of illuminating digression. And the ensemble acting is a joy, equal to Crash. Preston Sturges would have treated sex like this had he flourished in the Nervous Naughts. I think this movie may be a harbinger of the Terrific Teens.

That's why i gave this movie a ten - a great life story, no good or bad guys, no consistent plot line, nothing of that sort, not as i say a "Batman movie", where something that's not from this world is going on. It's just life as is it, a story that can and might happen in the life of a group of people... and this kind of movies is catching to the wide audience in the last couple of years. Really twisted i can't even start to summarize this movie because there's so much to say, the action is going on in two different directions that are somewhat connected... the first movie that comes to mind, a movie that i also loved, is Magnolia, with Tom Cruise, the entanglement, and the way that everything just comes together in the end... and more the way that the story was told besides the movie, being written, white on black... the story being way too full of small but very significant details the movie would have taken otherwise 6 hours, if not for the black on white commentaries. To put it short - a must see!

I enjoyed Happy Endings more than any other film I've seen this year. I admit I had a difficult time following the convoluted plot and that the side title narration did not really help, but I found the film to be most rewarding. I am a big fan of The Opposite of Sex so I was anxious to see the results of what this writer/director would do with this same kind of material. I was not disappointed. In a way, Happy Endings reminded me of Sideways but was far more compelling. The performances were extraordinary especially Maggie Gylenhall and Tom Arnold who gives the performance of his life. The fact that he did not get nominated for an Oscar is staggering. This film is NOT FOR EVERYBODY but for those who appreciate intelligent and subtle film making

Is there life after Friends? The only reason I watch movies starring one of the six main cast members of the show is the hope that some real talent lies there. Until now, I must have seen everything except talent. But in this film, Lisa Kudrow tops it all. I don't think I've ever had to endure such awkward acting, obvious even as she walks into a room without saying a single word. I'm not sure if she was just putting in too much effort trying not to look and sound like Phoebe or if Phoebe is simply the only character she can play. Either way, it was quite painful to watch. The film is basically three loosely connected stories and for some unclear and baffling reason, it opens with a scene from the end as Mamie (Kudrow) is hit by a car. We are then reassured by the writers - through text that constantly and randomly appears on the screen in the middle of conversations - that she will not die because this movie is sort of a comedy. Flashback to 20 years ago, step-siblings Mamie and Charley (Coogan) have sex and Mamie gets pregnant. Flash-forward to now, Jesse (Bradford), a young documentary filmmaker, approaches Mamie with knowledge about her son that had she given up years ago. If she agrees his filming the encounter between mother and son, he will lead her to him. He needs this to get into film school. She refuses, and in a scene lifted from an 80s sitcom, offers him another story instead: Javier (Cannavale), an illegal immigrant turned sex worker. Javier is actually Mamie's boyfriend, a masseur who seems to give out happy endings to some of his female clients. Story number two is about Charley, who now runs a restaurant and is actually gay. His lover, Gil (Sutcliffe), had given his sperm to their lesbian friends Pam (Dern) and Diane (Clarke) because they wanted a baby. According to Pam and Diane, they didn't use his sperm but in fact resorted to another source to get impregnated. Charley is almost certain that the couple is lying because they don't want to share their child with them. In the third story, freeloader Jude (Gyllenhaal) buddies up to Otis (Ritter) because she found out his dad is filthy rich. Since Otis is gay (and in love with Charley), Jude finds her way into the dad's arms (Arnold), with whom she unwillingly and unexpectedly falls in love. Kudrow's pathetic performance aside, the movie was simply pointless. I don't believe that stuffing the cast with gays and lesbians gives any more dimension to a badly written, badly performed, non-sensical script. I seriously couldn't have cared less about any of the characters, whether Mamie would find her son, or if Gil is the biological father of the baby, or if things will work out for Jude. Give this one a miss for sure.

Just what is it with the public, and even the more discerning critics? This makes three art house films in a row that have been even better than I expected: Heights, Mysterious Skin and now the contemporary multiple story-themed Happy Endings. While I never thought these would break the $ 50 million mark, come on, all are truly superior story telling. Like the other two, Happy Endinds is involving, well-written and cost what, less than one-tenth of what puerile nonsense like The Longest Yard and The Island demand? All three have gay characters, another link. All are modern stories. And all are brought to life by naturalistic, fine performances. Lisa Kudrow leads a sterling cast, with several name performers who seemed eager to appear even in smaller roles; Someone I hardly know, Jesse Bradford, appears in two of the three films, with talent far beyond what was exhibited in more commercial work. I could have watched another hour of this group of interlocking stories. As a fan of Altman's Short Cuts, there are indeed parallels here, but why would this "Endings" be considered so inferior? So prepared for talk, sit down and enjoy yourself, I sure as hell know that this one brought lots of pleasure to me.