Happy Endings | |
---|---|
Directed by | Don Roos |
Produced by | Michael Paseornek Holly Wiersma |
Written by | Don Roos |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Clark Mathis |
Edited by | David Codron |
Distributed by | Lions Gate Entertainment |
July 29, 2005 | |
Running time | 128 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,311,633[1] |
Looking for movie tickets? Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing Happy Ending near you. May 22, 1970 The Happy Ending is dated and overlong but Jean Simmons is just terrific as the bored Denver housewife who turns to drink. Simmons earned her only Oscar nomination for this film. Many of the scenes in this film ring very hollow now, especially the.
Happy Endings is a 2005 American dramedy film written and directed by Don Roos and starring Tom Arnold, Jesse Bradford, Bobby Cannavale, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow and Jason Ritter.
The expression 'happy ending' is a colloquial term for offering sexual release to a client at the end of a massage.
- 4Reception
Plot[edit]
The film follows a diverse group of mostly middle-class Los Angelenos through the emotional ups and downs in their flawed yet very human lives, each loosely connected to each other through a restaurant.
In the first story, Mamie (Lisa Kudrow) reluctantly agrees to work with a would-be young filmmaker (Jesse Bradford) in order to locate the now grown son she secretly gave up for adoption after becoming pregnant from her stepbrother Charley (Steve Coogan) – who is later revealed to be gay – 19 years earlier.
In the second story arc, her stepbrother, and his domestic partner, Gil (David Sutcliffe), are deciding whether or not to confront their friends, a lesbian couple (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke), regarding the paternity of their son.
And in the third, a young man, Otis (Jason Ritter), is involved with a band and trying to keep his father, Frank (Tom Arnold), from learning that he is gay, while also dealing with the seemingly gold-digging woman, Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who inserts herself into their lives.
Cast[edit]
- Lisa Kudrow as Mamie Toll
- Steve Coogan as Charley Peppitone
- Tom Arnold as Frank McKee
- Jason Ritter as Otis McKee
- Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jude
- Bobby Cannavale as Javier Duran
- Jesse Bradford as Nicky Kunitz
- David Sutcliffe as Gil Palmer
- Laura Dern as Pam Ferris
- Sarah Clarke as Diane
- Johnny Galecki as Miles (uncredited)
Production[edit]
Director Don Roos wrote the part of Mamie expressly for Lisa Kudrow after directing her in his earlier film, The Opposite of Sex, which he also wrote.[2] Originally, the story concerned three sisters.[3] Maggie Gyllenhaal was not the first choice to play Jude. Gwyneth Paltrow was originally slated to play the part. Gyllenhaal does her own singing in the film. Ray Liotta turned down the role of Frank McKee.[citation needed]
It took 18 months to find financial backing for the production.[4]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
Happy Endings received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 54% rating from 107 critics.[5] On Metacritic, it score 57 out of 100 from 31 critics.[6]
Roger Ebert noted that 'Maggie Gyllenhaal steals the show', and other 'characters not so engaging' and 'the film's problem is that we don't much like most of the characters, or care about them'. But he still gave the film 2.5 out 3 stars.[7] Amber Wilkinson from eyeforfilm.co.uk notes on 22 January 2005 that 'short and snappy seem to be words long forgotten by filmmakers' and 'the cast is strong and some of the lines - particularly the title cards, which pop up to offer back stories - are fun, but there is a lack of heart to the movie'.[8] Dustin Putman from filmfile.com on 16 July 2005 noted 'it isn't really adding up to a whole lot' and 'the force of the splendid performances take hold and, along with Roos' easeful, non-showy cinematic handle, buoy the film above its more wobbly moments of indifference'.[9]
Accolades[edit]
The 2005 Sundance Film Festival opened with this film.[8]
Happy Endings received nominations for:[10]
- 2006 Independent Spirit Award for 'Best Supporting Female' – Maggie Gyllenhaal
- 2005 Satellite Awards
- for 'Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical' – Tom Arnold
- for 'Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical' – Steve Coogan
- for 'Outstanding Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical'
- for 'Outstanding Screenplay, Original' – Don Roos
See also[edit]
- Hyperlink cinema – the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines
References[edit]
- ^'Happy Endings (2005) - Money'. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^InterviewsResults
- ^'Don Roos returns with 'Happy Endings''. nwsource.com. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^Happy Endings DVD commentary, Don Ross
- ^'Happy Endings (2005)'. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^'Happy Endings'. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^Ebert, Roger (14 July 2005). 'Happy Endings Movie Review & Film Summary (2005)'. rogerebert.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^ abWilkinson, Amber (22 January 2005). 'Happy Endings (2005) Movie Review from Eye for Film'. www.eyeforfilm.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^'Dustin Putman's Review - Happy Endings (2005) - [TheMovieBoy]'. www.thefilmfile.com. 16 July 2005. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^'Awards' on IMDb.com
External links[edit]
- Happy Endings on IMDb
- Happy Endings at AllMovie
- Happy Endings at the TCM Movie Database
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Happy_Endings_(film)&oldid=911368222'
Happy End | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Haneke |
Produced by | Margaret Ménégoz |
Written by | Michael Haneke |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Christian Berger |
Edited by | Monika Willi |
| |
Distributed by | Les Films du Losange (France) X-Verleih (Germany) Filmladen (Austria) |
| |
107 minutes[1] | |
Country |
|
Language | English[2] French[2] |
Box office | $1.8 million[3] |
Happy End is a 2017 drama film written and directed by Michael Haneke. It stars Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had also played daughter and father in Haneke's 2012 film Amour. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5][6] It was released in the United States on 22 December 2017 by Sony Pictures Classics. It was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[7]
- 5Reception
Synopsis[edit]
The film starts with clips secretly filmed with a smartphone by Eve Laurent, a teenager, showing her mother and overlaid with text messages from Eve saying that her mother is selfish and uncaring. The last clip shows Eve's mother unconscious and Eve admitting that she poisoned her with sedatives.
The next scene shows security camera video depicting an accident at a construction site. The site's construction firm is owned by Anne Laurent, Eve's aunt. Anne is then shown having dinner with her father, Georges Laurent, who suffers from dementia, as well as her son Pierre, who works for the construction company and has a drinking problem, her brother, Thomas Laurent, who is a surgeon, and his wife Anaïs. They all live together in a large mansion in Calais. We learn that the accident injured one of the construction workers and he will probably not survive his injuries. Eve comes to live with her father's family while her mother is in the hospital, and begins to have suspicions that her father is having an affair. One day at the beach she overhears Thomas talking on his cellphone to a woman, and she asks him if he still loves Anais.
Pierre goes to an apartment building in the banlieue where he is confronted and badly beaten by a young man, who is later identified as the son of the construction worker injured in the accident. Pierre then flees the mansion and hides in an empty apartment, where he is found by Anne. They have an argument during which she asks him why he started drinking, accuses him of not taking his job in the construction firm seriously, and tells him that had he gone to the police after being beaten up, their chances in their legal dispute with the family of the construction worker would be much better. We later see her and her lawyer talking with the family, offering some money and trying to dissuade them from suing by threatening to press charges for the physical assault on Pierre by the worker's son. Pierre is later shown trying to embarrass his mother by calling one of the housemaids a 'slave' in front of a large gathering during a party at the mansion.
After Eve's mother falls into a coma as a result of the poisoning, which everyone believes was a suicide attempt, Eve is taken in by Thomas, her estranged father. She hacks into his computer and finds many e-mails and chat messages which show that he has a sadomasochistic sexual relationship with a female musician. Eve tries to commit suicide by taking the rest of the sedatives which she had pocketed. She survives and when her father asks her at her hospital bed why she did it, she confronts him with her knowledge of his affair and accuses him of not being able to love anyone, neither her mother, Anaïs, nor herself. Thomas is left speechless. A short time later, Eve's mother dies from the poisoning.
Georges Laurent, depressed because of his dementia and frailty, had already tried to commit suicide before and is shown late at night driving off in a car which he steers directly into a tree in another suicide attempt. Now using a wheelchair due to bone fractures from the car crash, he asks his longtime hairdresser to help obtain a gun or medication for another suicide attempt, but the hairdresser refuses. After Eve's own attempt, Thomas asks Georges to talk to her and he asks her why she took the sedatives. When she does not answer, Georges tells her the story of how, when his wife became ill, she suffered so terribly that he finally smothered her and killed her (also the story of Haneke's previous film Amour). Eve now tells him the story of when she was a young child shortly after her father left her mother and she was sent to a youth camp where she was prescribed sedatives. She did not take the medication herself but slipped it to another girl in the camp whom she did not like. When the poisoning was detected Eve was sent home. When Georges asks her if she regrets doing it she confirms she did.
At a large party at a beach restaurant in honour of Anne's engagement, Pierre arrives late with several refugees from the Calais Jungle in tow. When he starts presenting them to the party crowd, Anne breaks his finger to make him stop. While this is happening, Georges asks Eve to wheel him outside. Leaving the party unnoticed, he asks her to push him down a slipway into the sea. They go to the edge of the water where he proceeds to wheel himself into the water up to his neck. As Eve starts recording her grandfather with her smartphone, the last scene of the film seen through the lens of the phone shows Georges almost fully submerged in the water just as Thomas and Anne run after him with Anne casting a shocked look back at Eve.
Cast[edit]
- Isabelle Huppert as Anne Laurent
- Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges Laurent
- Mathieu Kassovitz as Thomas Laurent
- Franz Rogowski as Pierre Laurent
- Fantine Harduin as Eve Laurent
- Laura Verlinden as Anaïs Laurent
- Toby Jones as Lawrence Bradshaw
- Loubna Abidar as Claire
- Nabiha Akkari as Jamila
- Hassam Ghancy as Rachid
- Hille Perl as Female Musician
Production[edit]
In December 2015, French media reported that Michael Haneke would reunite with Amour actors Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant for his newest project Happy End, with the European migrant crisis potentially forming the backdrop of the film's plot.[8] On 12 February 2016, Haneke's longtime producer Margaret Ménégoz confirmed that the project would begin filming in northern France in the summer of 2016.[9] On 27 June 2016, Happy End began filming in Calais, with Mathieu Kassovitz also joining the cast. It was reported that French production company Les Films du Losange had secured distribution deals in a number of countries.[10]
Release[edit]
In November 2016, Sony Pictures Classics acquired U.S and Latin American distribution rights to the film.[11]
Reception[edit]
Cannes premiere[edit]
After the film's initial screening at the Cannes Film Festival, some critics acclaimed Happy End while several others 'complained that Haneke [...] was retreading old ground.'[12] In a five-star review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film 'as stark, brilliant and unforgiving as a halogen light', praising Haneke's visual composition and noting how the narrative 'sometimes takes insidious little leaps forward, allowing us to register with a lurch the awful things that have been passed over.'[13] Eric Kohn of IndieWire was also highly positive, arguing that 'rather than smothering the material in bad vibes, the filmmaker uses them to gradually reveal a fascinating world in which anger and resentment becomes the only weapon any of these people know how to wield.'[14] Conversely, Tim Robey wrote in The Telegraph that the film felt 'shockingly familiar', stating, 'Haneke’s style is less cumulative and more detached than ever. The film steadfastly refuses to coalesce, as thesis, thriller, winking satire on European wealth, despairing family soap opera, or any of the modes it suggests.'[15]
Critical response[edit]
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 69% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, 'Happy End is far from Haneke's best work, yet it still succeeds in forcing audiences to confront—and uncomfortably consider—the dark side of human nature.'[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.[17]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Happy End'. Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ abhttp://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/happy-end-2017
- ^'Happy End (2017)'. The-Numbers.com. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
- ^'The 2017 Official Selection'. Cannes Film Festival. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^Winfrey, Graham (13 April 2017). '2017 Cannes Film Festival Announces Lineup: Todd Haynes, Sofia Coppola, 'Twin Peaks' and More'. IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^Jagernauth, Kevin (13 April 2017). 'Sofia Coppola, Todd Haynes, Michael Haneke, Bong-Joon Ho & 'Twin Peaks' Lead 2017 Cannes Film Festival Line Up'. The Playlist. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^dpa (6 September 2017). 'Hanekes «Happy End» im Oscar-Rennen'. SVZ. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
- ^Jagernauth, Kevin (30 December 2015). 'Michael Haneke Reteams With 'Amour' Duo Isabelle Huppert & Jean-Louis Trintignant For Refugee Film 'Happy End''. IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
- ^Goodfellow, Melanie (12 February 2016). 'Michael Haneke's 'Happy End' launches at EFM'. Screen Daily. Screen International. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
- ^Goodfellow, Melanie (27 June 2016). 'Michael Haneke's Calais-set 'Happy End' secures deals as shoot begins'. Screen Daily. Screen International. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
- ^Lee, Ashley (1 November 2016). 'Sony Pictures Classics Nabs Michael Haneke's 'Happy End''. The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^Pomeroy, Robin (22 May 2017). 'King of Cannes Haneke could get record third Palme d'Or with 'Happy End''. Reuters. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^Bradshaw, Peter (21 May 2017). 'Happy End review – Michael Haneke's satanic soap opera of pure sociopathy'. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^Kohn, Eric (21 May 2017). ''Happy End' Review: In This Quasi-Sequel to 'Amour,' Michael Haneke is a Master of Bourgeois Despair'. IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^Robey, Tim (22 May 2017). 'Cannes 2017, Happy End review: even with a Sia number, Michael Haneke's latest outrage feels shockingly familiar'. The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^'Happy End (2017)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
- ^'Happy End Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
External links[edit]
- Happy End on IMDb
- Happy End at Metacritic
- Happy End at Rotten Tomatoes
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Happy_End_(2017_film)&oldid=877164087'