Amazon.co.uk Review
At times brilliant and insightful, at times repellent and false, Happiness is director Todd Solondz's multi-story tale of sex, perversion and loneliness. Plumbing depths of Crumb-like angst and rejection, Solondz won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1998 and the film was a staple of nearly every critic's Top 10 list. Admirable, shocking, and hilarious for its sarcastic yet strangely empathetic look at consenting adults' confusion between lust and love, the film stares unflinchingly until the audience blinks. But it doesn't stop there. A word of strong caution to parents: One of the main characters, a suburban super dad (played by Dylan Baker), is really a predatory paedophile and there is more than an attempt to paint him as a sympathetic character. Children are used in this film as running gags or, worse, the means to an end. Whether that end is a humorous scene for Solondz or sexual gratification for the rapist becomes largely irrelevant. Happiness is an intelligent, sad film, revelatory and exact at moments. It's also abuse in the guise of art. That's nothing to celebrate. --Keith Simanton
Customer Reviews:
The Banality of Perversion & Dysfunction, middle-America style.......2007-12-10
This film is indeed marvelous. Todd Solondz combines really absurd situations and embarrassing moments -some of which most of us do encounter in daily life and some we hopefully won't- with serious issues. Thus, this film provides not only a very high degree of entertainment -Solondz' sense for irony is exceptional-, it gives you a critical view on society without judging or condemning or forcing you to think one way or the other. I am genuinely impressed by Happiness and its cast full of great actors.
It is littered with an assortment of characters that seem to have sexual fetishes and perversions of some sort. Solondz explores some dark subjects and you would think this would make the film harsh and difficult to watch, but it holds your attention throughout mainly because of the excellent performances on show, especially from Dylan Baker as a respected doctor who holds a terrible secret, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as an obscene phone-caller. He is so incredibly versatile - he successfully made my skin crawl here. Before I even go further the very first scene is probably the best work John Lovitz has ever done. This movie looks dead on at some of the most awkward and horrific things in American culture, but never ever ever tells you or suggests to you what you should think or feel, the way most films do. John's Speech will blow you away. Jane Adams, who has a calamitous love life and plays the social reject of three dysfunctional sisters, does a wonderful job in role her facial expressions will get you going. My personal favorite was Cynthia Stevenson as one of those typical housewives with 2.5 kids and a carpool. Her character was so obnoxious, superficial and condescending - she clearly did a wonderful job. I was also a huge fan of Camryn Manheim (what a twist!), Lara Flynn Boyle (she gives new meaning to the role of the phony snob), Elizabeth Ashley, and Molly Shannon's cameo which was HYSTERICAL. And the child actors...simply brilliant and such difficult material. The film's most powerful and emotional scene is towards the end when Baker's character has a trying conversation with his son.
I think it is fair to say that anyone watching this film can identify with at LEAST one of the so-called 'sicknesses' of the characters, therefore, it is the look in to the dark recesses of their own minds that makes them so uncomfortable. The world is a messed up place, and we all contribute to that in our own fashion, some more than others, but nevertheless, we all do, because our lives all clash with one another at some point. The best we can do is to face it and deal with it, not act as though we are separate from it! I suppose what I am trying to say is that this work is an important, unflinching look at the REAL reality in this world and, like it or not, it does affect you in one way or another, so you might as well face up to it by identifying with this film!
Sufficiently awkward with uneasy laughs in all the right places.......2007-06-10
At first I was a bit worried about watching Happiness. To be completely honest I only got it because Dylan Baker is in it. However my fear didn't stop me yanking the DVD from the box and shoving it into the DVD player.
You're thrown into the story. There probably wasn't much of a choice because of the amount of characters and all their individual little hidden away problems. There's our main character Joy, whose ex-boyfriend curses her and her family with terrible unhappiness. She's a failing musician yet she quits her job and becomes a teacher for refugees. There's her two sisters, one a writer unfulfilled, the other oblivious to the fact that her Mr Average therapist husband is really a closet paedophile who takes a strange interest in his son's friends. There are other characters too that play important parts but I'll leave it there.
Despite the awkwardness throughout the film, it's a very good film that you have to remember is a black comedy. As for the viewing, it's not something to watch with friends, never mind family.
And the acting is so sincere and believable. Dylan Baker is extremely impressive as the predatory paedophile father. He is an incredible actor and no other actor could have been as truly creepy yet beg for sympathy from the audience in quite the way he does. (Of course, you never really do get on his side, it's just not possible) You need guts for a role like that, and you need to have exceptional acting skill to still be getting work(!) (Remember Dylan in Along Came A Spider, and now the Spider-Man movies as Dr Curt Connors).
Overall, the movie, while a little overpacked with nuts, is essentially a giant poisoned cookie. Watch and let it intoxicate you with uneasiness, horror and most of all, laughter.
Great feature, real ratio is 16:9.......2006-09-07
I purchased this feature somewhat a month ago. I had seen it before, so I knew what to wait. I was a bit suspicious about the aspect ratio told to be 4:3, but the film was fine for my widescreen tv. No black boxes att all as my fear was that there would be some on the sides. With this ratio you wont see the whole film as it is in the theatre, but it's a lot better than my expectation of a real 4:3 ratio. I still ordered the film with this expectation, so that tells about my fealings for the film. I just had to get to my home.
Dark, depraved, depressing, paedophilic... hilarious.......2005-11-17
Very real, and yet somehow very surreal at the same time.
Happiness.......2005-08-15
Happiness. What a strange title for a film that is anything but!
It's one of those films that is almost impossible to sum up. It's really a long collection of short interconnecting sketches that detail the personal quirks of a dozen or so characters and the skeletons in their closets they'd probably wouldn't want us to know about.
The main thread of the plot is the three Jordan sisters who are all dealing with their own individual crisis. Firstly we meet Joy, who is having dinner with the boyfriend she's just dumped. Joy is insecure, vulnerable, naive and a little goofy. When Andy, her ex-boyfriend, commits suicide days later and she receives a nasty phone call from Andy's mother, she quits her job and starts to teach immigrants English, only to fall for Russian romantic Vlad, whose partner attacks poor Joy in the staff room when she finds out.
We then meet Allen who is seeing a therapist about his obsession with Helen his neighbour. Helen is one of the Jordan sisters and Allen's therapist is married to the other one, (with us so far?) Allen starts to make dirty phone calls to Helen, but to his amazement Helen actually enjoys them, which just doesn't compute with sad lonely Allen. He has his own problems anyway with his other neighbour, Kristina.
Perhaps the most controversial storyline is concerning the final sister, Trish. As we've said she married to Bill the therapist, but what Trish doesn't know is that Bill is a secret paedophile who secretly drugs his family to take advantage of his son's sleep-over friend. What makes this section even harder to get our heads around is that in every other way Bill is a regular likeable chap, some of the heart to hearts he has with his own son are very tender and sweet, and yet here is a man who represents possibly every parents' worst nightmare.
The film can be laugh out loud funny, sentimental and sometimes quite sickening. There are tender moments and vile moments and even some heartbreaking moments. The performances are to a man absolutely perfect and although I'm not going to single out anyone for special mention all the actors put in totally believable performances and capture you from the first scene onwards.
It's not easy viewing sometimes and there are going to be some viewers who find this to be unwatchable in parts. But that all said it is clever, singular and challenging.
Amazon.co.uk Review
If the idea of an Oprah Winfrey-produced film detailing the last days of a dying man and his inspirational effect on those left behind sounds a little cloying, Tuesdays with Morrie will be a rather pleasant surprise. While the presentation of this true story is certainly very American in tone, and it was obviously made for television (the points where it faded to commercial breaks are clear), it's still a surprisingly satisfying piece of work. The credit for that can firmly be laid at the door of Jack Lemmon, appearing in what was to be his last film. He excels as the terminally ill college professor Morrie Schwartz, determined to use his passing as a medium for teaching others about life. Still showing signs of the spark that made the movies of his heyday so memorable, Lemmon is also capable of bringing a magnificent pathos to the role. Co-star Hank Azaria is a more-than-equal foil, instilling his character with a growing awareness of self that blossoms before the viewer. Yes, at times it is a little too schmaltzy for its own good, but Tuesdays with Morrie is a film capable of visiting emotional extremes with ease.
On the DVD: A very scanty package, with the usual scene access and Dolby Digital stereo accompanied by a text-only resume of the movie and the briefest of biographies of its cast--in Lemmon's case a massively ineffectual effort.--Phil Udell
Customer Reviews:
You'll watch this more than once!.......2007-07-29
OK if your looking for a movie that will make you jump out of your seat with shock, don't get this one! This will make you sink deeper into your sofa & take a look at life.
If you enjoy movies like "The Legend Of Bagger Vance" you'll love this!
It's one of the few movies which is almost as good as the book!
Hope this helps.
Take care!
A life changing film, A MUST SEE.......2007-02-19
All I say is that all the reviews on this page bar one, say it all.
Truly a life changing film which I once saw on TV and had to buy to watch again and show others. It really ghits the nail on the head about life and how relationships can shape us and change us for good or bad etc.
It's a intelligently made film, a vehicle for a life's worth of wisdom and a way to show how if we explore it's examples, we can change and understand the past and future and live life to its full.
I can't explain, you MUST SEE it, and well if you do you will realise what i am saying. I never usually give review but this is great stuff, and a great performance by Jack Lemon who really does do a cracking job.
as for the only bad review by a guy claled "Mr.McCeltic", well he obviously hasn't seen the film, because if he did he'd have changed his life and taken something from it, or else if he has seen it, well, what can we say, there are people out there who hate good things and despise love and wisdom. There will always be people who say black is white and good is bad... you can't please everyone in today's society and fo course in an age where prisons are full, crime is soaring, etc, of course there will always be people out there for whom great things are 'rubbish', so I wouldn't worry about negative reviews, as if you watch the film you can't disagree with it, unless you have an opposite philosophy.
Watch It!!.......2005-06-20
You may laugh. You may cry. You will defiantly be moved. Excellent film.
Very Poor !!!.......2004-06-23
The 'Five People in heaven' is excellant !!!
This is NOT! Which is very disappointing.
Do NOT buy it !!!
A film worth watching.......2003-06-03
This is a moving film about a retired professor who is terminally ill. He faces this with such honesty and grace that he truly becomes an inspiration, not only to one of his former students, who comes to visit him on Tuesdays - but to all who allow themselves to be touched by his wisdom (this includes readers of the book and/or viewers of the film).
The wisdom is his most important lesson: How to live life.
Jack Lemmon is wonderful in the part of Morrie Schwartz.
It's a film worth watching!
Amazon.co.uk Review
They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meeting involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfilment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart
Customer Reviews:
It's no worse really than the other rubbish rom coms I've seen by this stable.......2008-02-08
As above - please don't ask me to waste more good words on this puny rubbish.
Very Enjoyable.......2007-09-28
This film really continued the trend of enjoyable rom-coms from the UK film market. There have been many more since from the "Ricard Curtis age" as some now call it, including - Four Weddings and Funeral, Love Actually and About a Boy
Very funny.......2007-06-06
This was a lot better than i thought it would be. It's very funny and has a good storyline. Well acted and well written, thumbs up.
Demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people.......2007-05-05
Not usually impressed with Romantic Comedies, i found this one strangely compelling. It really was a nice movie, littered with great characters, especially Spike played by Rhys Ifans (Hilarious).
The story demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people, and the humorous portrayal of this, is both touching and realistic. And i mean realistically created, not necessarily true realism.
Worthy of your attention, this well written romantic comedy is a must for fans of the genre and is a good gamble if your not.
Great.......2007-04-26
This is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. It caught the mood of its period brilliantly. The cast is fantastic and all of them play their parts well. Hugh Grant is a rather wimpish yet endearing leading man. Julia Roberts plays her part with just the right mix of film star arrogance and little girl lost. Many classic scenes, not least of all the dinner party that Grant takes her to on their first "date". It is a film that makes you smile and surely that is what a film of this type should do. Every home should have a copy.
Amazon.co.uk Review
At times brilliant and insightful, at times repellent and false, Happiness is director Todd Solondz's multi-story tale of sex, perversion and loneliness. Plumbing depths of Crumb-like angst and rejection, Solondz won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1998 and the film was a staple of nearly every critic's Top 10 list. Admirable, shocking, and hilarious for its sarcastic yet strangely empathetic look at consenting adults' confusion between lust and love, the film stares unflinchingly until the audience blinks. But it doesn't stop there. A word of strong caution to parents: One of the main characters, a suburban super dad (played by Dylan Baker), is really a predatory paedophile and there is more than an attempt to paint him as a sympathetic character. Children are used in this film as running gags or, worse, the means to an end. Whether that end is a humorous scene for Solondz or sexual gratification for the rapist becomes largely irrelevant. Happiness is an intelligent, sad film, revelatory and exact at moments. It's also abuse in the guise of art. That's nothing to celebrate. --Keith Simanton
Customer Reviews:
The Banality of Perversion & Dysfunction, middle-America style.......2007-12-10
This film is indeed marvelous. Todd Solondz combines really absurd situations and embarrassing moments -some of which most of us do encounter in daily life and some we hopefully won't- with serious issues. Thus, this film provides not only a very high degree of entertainment -Solondz' sense for irony is exceptional-, it gives you a critical view on society without judging or condemning or forcing you to think one way or the other. I am genuinely impressed by Happiness and its cast full of great actors.
It is littered with an assortment of characters that seem to have sexual fetishes and perversions of some sort. Solondz explores some dark subjects and you would think this would make the film harsh and difficult to watch, but it holds your attention throughout mainly because of the excellent performances on show, especially from Dylan Baker as a respected doctor who holds a terrible secret, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as an obscene phone-caller. He is so incredibly versatile - he successfully made my skin crawl here. Before I even go further the very first scene is probably the best work John Lovitz has ever done. This movie looks dead on at some of the most awkward and horrific things in American culture, but never ever ever tells you or suggests to you what you should think or feel, the way most films do. John's Speech will blow you away. Jane Adams, who has a calamitous love life and plays the social reject of three dysfunctional sisters, does a wonderful job in role her facial expressions will get you going. My personal favorite was Cynthia Stevenson as one of those typical housewives with 2.5 kids and a carpool. Her character was so obnoxious, superficial and condescending - she clearly did a wonderful job. I was also a huge fan of Camryn Manheim (what a twist!), Lara Flynn Boyle (she gives new meaning to the role of the phony snob), Elizabeth Ashley, and Molly Shannon's cameo which was HYSTERICAL. And the child actors...simply brilliant and such difficult material. The film's most powerful and emotional scene is towards the end when Baker's character has a trying conversation with his son.
I think it is fair to say that anyone watching this film can identify with at LEAST one of the so-called 'sicknesses' of the characters, therefore, it is the look in to the dark recesses of their own minds that makes them so uncomfortable. The world is a messed up place, and we all contribute to that in our own fashion, some more than others, but nevertheless, we all do, because our lives all clash with one another at some point. The best we can do is to face it and deal with it, not act as though we are separate from it! I suppose what I am trying to say is that this work is an important, unflinching look at the REAL reality in this world and, like it or not, it does affect you in one way or another, so you might as well face up to it by identifying with this film!
Sufficiently awkward with uneasy laughs in all the right places.......2007-06-10
At first I was a bit worried about watching Happiness. To be completely honest I only got it because Dylan Baker is in it. However my fear didn't stop me yanking the DVD from the box and shoving it into the DVD player.
You're thrown into the story. There probably wasn't much of a choice because of the amount of characters and all their individual little hidden away problems. There's our main character Joy, whose ex-boyfriend curses her and her family with terrible unhappiness. She's a failing musician yet she quits her job and becomes a teacher for refugees. There's her two sisters, one a writer unfulfilled, the other oblivious to the fact that her Mr Average therapist husband is really a closet paedophile who takes a strange interest in his son's friends. There are other characters too that play important parts but I'll leave it there.
Despite the awkwardness throughout the film, it's a very good film that you have to remember is a black comedy. As for the viewing, it's not something to watch with friends, never mind family.
And the acting is so sincere and believable. Dylan Baker is extremely impressive as the predatory paedophile father. He is an incredible actor and no other actor could have been as truly creepy yet beg for sympathy from the audience in quite the way he does. (Of course, you never really do get on his side, it's just not possible) You need guts for a role like that, and you need to have exceptional acting skill to still be getting work(!) (Remember Dylan in Along Came A Spider, and now the Spider-Man movies as Dr Curt Connors).
Overall, the movie, while a little overpacked with nuts, is essentially a giant poisoned cookie. Watch and let it intoxicate you with uneasiness, horror and most of all, laughter.
Great feature, real ratio is 16:9.......2006-09-07
I purchased this feature somewhat a month ago. I had seen it before, so I knew what to wait. I was a bit suspicious about the aspect ratio told to be 4:3, but the film was fine for my widescreen tv. No black boxes att all as my fear was that there would be some on the sides. With this ratio you wont see the whole film as it is in the theatre, but it's a lot better than my expectation of a real 4:3 ratio. I still ordered the film with this expectation, so that tells about my fealings for the film. I just had to get to my home.
Dark, depraved, depressing, paedophilic... hilarious.......2005-11-17
Very real, and yet somehow very surreal at the same time.
Happiness.......2005-08-15
Happiness. What a strange title for a film that is anything but!
It's one of those films that is almost impossible to sum up. It's really a long collection of short interconnecting sketches that detail the personal quirks of a dozen or so characters and the skeletons in their closets they'd probably wouldn't want us to know about.
The main thread of the plot is the three Jordan sisters who are all dealing with their own individual crisis. Firstly we meet Joy, who is having dinner with the boyfriend she's just dumped. Joy is insecure, vulnerable, naive and a little goofy. When Andy, her ex-boyfriend, commits suicide days later and she receives a nasty phone call from Andy's mother, she quits her job and starts to teach immigrants English, only to fall for Russian romantic Vlad, whose partner attacks poor Joy in the staff room when she finds out.
We then meet Allen who is seeing a therapist about his obsession with Helen his neighbour. Helen is one of the Jordan sisters and Allen's therapist is married to the other one, (with us so far?) Allen starts to make dirty phone calls to Helen, but to his amazement Helen actually enjoys them, which just doesn't compute with sad lonely Allen. He has his own problems anyway with his other neighbour, Kristina.
Perhaps the most controversial storyline is concerning the final sister, Trish. As we've said she married to Bill the therapist, but what Trish doesn't know is that Bill is a secret paedophile who secretly drugs his family to take advantage of his son's sleep-over friend. What makes this section even harder to get our heads around is that in every other way Bill is a regular likeable chap, some of the heart to hearts he has with his own son are very tender and sweet, and yet here is a man who represents possibly every parents' worst nightmare.
The film can be laugh out loud funny, sentimental and sometimes quite sickening. There are tender moments and vile moments and even some heartbreaking moments. The performances are to a man absolutely perfect and although I'm not going to single out anyone for special mention all the actors put in totally believable performances and capture you from the first scene onwards.
It's not easy viewing sometimes and there are going to be some viewers who find this to be unwatchable in parts. But that all said it is clever, singular and challenging.
Amazon.co.uk Review
They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meeting involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfilment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart
Customer Reviews:
It's no worse really than the other rubbish rom coms I've seen by this stable.......2008-02-08
As above - please don't ask me to waste more good words on this puny rubbish.
Very Enjoyable.......2007-09-28
This film really continued the trend of enjoyable rom-coms from the UK film market. There have been many more since from the "Ricard Curtis age" as some now call it, including - Four Weddings and Funeral, Love Actually and About a Boy
Very funny.......2007-06-06
This was a lot better than i thought it would be. It's very funny and has a good storyline. Well acted and well written, thumbs up.
Demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people.......2007-05-05
Not usually impressed with Romantic Comedies, i found this one strangely compelling. It really was a nice movie, littered with great characters, especially Spike played by Rhys Ifans (Hilarious).
The story demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people, and the humorous portrayal of this, is both touching and realistic. And i mean realistically created, not necessarily true realism.
Worthy of your attention, this well written romantic comedy is a must for fans of the genre and is a good gamble if your not.
Great.......2007-04-26
This is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. It caught the mood of its period brilliantly. The cast is fantastic and all of them play their parts well. Hugh Grant is a rather wimpish yet endearing leading man. Julia Roberts plays her part with just the right mix of film star arrogance and little girl lost. Many classic scenes, not least of all the dinner party that Grant takes her to on their first "date". It is a film that makes you smile and surely that is what a film of this type should do. Every home should have a copy.
Amazon.co.uk Review
At times brilliant and insightful, at times repellent and false, Happiness is director Todd Solondz's multi-story tale of sex, perversion and loneliness. Plumbing depths of Crumb-like angst and rejection, Solondz won the Cannes International Critics Prize in 1998 and the film was a staple of nearly every critic's Top 10 list. Admirable, shocking, and hilarious for its sarcastic yet strangely empathetic look at consenting adults' confusion between lust and love, the film stares unflinchingly until the audience blinks. But it doesn't stop there. A word of strong caution to parents: One of the main characters, a suburban super dad (played by Dylan Baker), is really a predatory paedophile and there is more than an attempt to paint him as a sympathetic character. Children are used in this film as running gags or, worse, the means to an end. Whether that end is a humorous scene for Solondz or sexual gratification for the rapist becomes largely irrelevant. Happiness is an intelligent, sad film, revelatory and exact at moments. It's also abuse in the guise of art. That's nothing to celebrate. --Keith Simanton
Customer Reviews:
The Banality of Perversion & Dysfunction, middle-America style.......2007-12-10
This film is indeed marvelous. Todd Solondz combines really absurd situations and embarrassing moments -some of which most of us do encounter in daily life and some we hopefully won't- with serious issues. Thus, this film provides not only a very high degree of entertainment -Solondz' sense for irony is exceptional-, it gives you a critical view on society without judging or condemning or forcing you to think one way or the other. I am genuinely impressed by Happiness and its cast full of great actors.
It is littered with an assortment of characters that seem to have sexual fetishes and perversions of some sort. Solondz explores some dark subjects and you would think this would make the film harsh and difficult to watch, but it holds your attention throughout mainly because of the excellent performances on show, especially from Dylan Baker as a respected doctor who holds a terrible secret, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as an obscene phone-caller. He is so incredibly versatile - he successfully made my skin crawl here. Before I even go further the very first scene is probably the best work John Lovitz has ever done. This movie looks dead on at some of the most awkward and horrific things in American culture, but never ever ever tells you or suggests to you what you should think or feel, the way most films do. John's Speech will blow you away. Jane Adams, who has a calamitous love life and plays the social reject of three dysfunctional sisters, does a wonderful job in role her facial expressions will get you going. My personal favorite was Cynthia Stevenson as one of those typical housewives with 2.5 kids and a carpool. Her character was so obnoxious, superficial and condescending - she clearly did a wonderful job. I was also a huge fan of Camryn Manheim (what a twist!), Lara Flynn Boyle (she gives new meaning to the role of the phony snob), Elizabeth Ashley, and Molly Shannon's cameo which was HYSTERICAL. And the child actors...simply brilliant and such difficult material. The film's most powerful and emotional scene is towards the end when Baker's character has a trying conversation with his son.
I think it is fair to say that anyone watching this film can identify with at LEAST one of the so-called 'sicknesses' of the characters, therefore, it is the look in to the dark recesses of their own minds that makes them so uncomfortable. The world is a messed up place, and we all contribute to that in our own fashion, some more than others, but nevertheless, we all do, because our lives all clash with one another at some point. The best we can do is to face it and deal with it, not act as though we are separate from it! I suppose what I am trying to say is that this work is an important, unflinching look at the REAL reality in this world and, like it or not, it does affect you in one way or another, so you might as well face up to it by identifying with this film!
Sufficiently awkward with uneasy laughs in all the right places.......2007-06-10
At first I was a bit worried about watching Happiness. To be completely honest I only got it because Dylan Baker is in it. However my fear didn't stop me yanking the DVD from the box and shoving it into the DVD player.
You're thrown into the story. There probably wasn't much of a choice because of the amount of characters and all their individual little hidden away problems. There's our main character Joy, whose ex-boyfriend curses her and her family with terrible unhappiness. She's a failing musician yet she quits her job and becomes a teacher for refugees. There's her two sisters, one a writer unfulfilled, the other oblivious to the fact that her Mr Average therapist husband is really a closet paedophile who takes a strange interest in his son's friends. There are other characters too that play important parts but I'll leave it there.
Despite the awkwardness throughout the film, it's a very good film that you have to remember is a black comedy. As for the viewing, it's not something to watch with friends, never mind family.
And the acting is so sincere and believable. Dylan Baker is extremely impressive as the predatory paedophile father. He is an incredible actor and no other actor could have been as truly creepy yet beg for sympathy from the audience in quite the way he does. (Of course, you never really do get on his side, it's just not possible) You need guts for a role like that, and you need to have exceptional acting skill to still be getting work(!) (Remember Dylan in Along Came A Spider, and now the Spider-Man movies as Dr Curt Connors).
Overall, the movie, while a little overpacked with nuts, is essentially a giant poisoned cookie. Watch and let it intoxicate you with uneasiness, horror and most of all, laughter.
Great feature, real ratio is 16:9.......2006-09-07
I purchased this feature somewhat a month ago. I had seen it before, so I knew what to wait. I was a bit suspicious about the aspect ratio told to be 4:3, but the film was fine for my widescreen tv. No black boxes att all as my fear was that there would be some on the sides. With this ratio you wont see the whole film as it is in the theatre, but it's a lot better than my expectation of a real 4:3 ratio. I still ordered the film with this expectation, so that tells about my fealings for the film. I just had to get to my home.
Dark, depraved, depressing, paedophilic... hilarious.......2005-11-17
Very real, and yet somehow very surreal at the same time.
Happiness.......2005-08-15
Happiness. What a strange title for a film that is anything but!
It's one of those films that is almost impossible to sum up. It's really a long collection of short interconnecting sketches that detail the personal quirks of a dozen or so characters and the skeletons in their closets they'd probably wouldn't want us to know about.
The main thread of the plot is the three Jordan sisters who are all dealing with their own individual crisis. Firstly we meet Joy, who is having dinner with the boyfriend she's just dumped. Joy is insecure, vulnerable, naive and a little goofy. When Andy, her ex-boyfriend, commits suicide days later and she receives a nasty phone call from Andy's mother, she quits her job and starts to teach immigrants English, only to fall for Russian romantic Vlad, whose partner attacks poor Joy in the staff room when she finds out.
We then meet Allen who is seeing a therapist about his obsession with Helen his neighbour. Helen is one of the Jordan sisters and Allen's therapist is married to the other one, (with us so far?) Allen starts to make dirty phone calls to Helen, but to his amazement Helen actually enjoys them, which just doesn't compute with sad lonely Allen. He has his own problems anyway with his other neighbour, Kristina.
Perhaps the most controversial storyline is concerning the final sister, Trish. As we've said she married to Bill the therapist, but what Trish doesn't know is that Bill is a secret paedophile who secretly drugs his family to take advantage of his son's sleep-over friend. What makes this section even harder to get our heads around is that in every other way Bill is a regular likeable chap, some of the heart to hearts he has with his own son are very tender and sweet, and yet here is a man who represents possibly every parents' worst nightmare.
The film can be laugh out loud funny, sentimental and sometimes quite sickening. There are tender moments and vile moments and even some heartbreaking moments. The performances are to a man absolutely perfect and although I'm not going to single out anyone for special mention all the actors put in totally believable performances and capture you from the first scene onwards.
It's not easy viewing sometimes and there are going to be some viewers who find this to be unwatchable in parts. But that all said it is clever, singular and challenging.
Amazon.co.uk Review
They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meeting involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfilment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart
Customer Reviews:
It's no worse really than the other rubbish rom coms I've seen by this stable.......2008-02-08
As above - please don't ask me to waste more good words on this puny rubbish.
Very Enjoyable.......2007-09-28
This film really continued the trend of enjoyable rom-coms from the UK film market. There have been many more since from the "Ricard Curtis age" as some now call it, including - Four Weddings and Funeral, Love Actually and About a Boy
Very funny.......2007-06-06
This was a lot better than i thought it would be. It's very funny and has a good storyline. Well acted and well written, thumbs up.
Demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people.......2007-05-05
Not usually impressed with Romantic Comedies, i found this one strangely compelling. It really was a nice movie, littered with great characters, especially Spike played by Rhys Ifans (Hilarious).
The story demonstrates to the extreme that love can occur between the most unlikely of people, and the humorous portrayal of this, is both touching and realistic. And i mean realistically created, not necessarily true realism.
Worthy of your attention, this well written romantic comedy is a must for fans of the genre and is a good gamble if your not.
Great.......2007-04-26
This is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. It caught the mood of its period brilliantly. The cast is fantastic and all of them play their parts well. Hugh Grant is a rather wimpish yet endearing leading man. Julia Roberts plays her part with just the right mix of film star arrogance and little girl lost. Many classic scenes, not least of all the dinner party that Grant takes her to on their first "date". It is a film that makes you smile and surely that is what a film of this type should do. Every home should have a copy.
UK DVD:
- Happy Together [1997]
- HollywoodLand [2006]
- Home And Away - Romances [2006]
- Homicide - Series 3 - Complete [1995]
- HONEY WEST- THE COMPLETE SERIES [2006]
- Hound of the Baskervilles [2002]
- Hussy [1980]
- Intimacy [2001]
- In Too Deep [2000]
- It's A Free World [2007]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
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