Director Don Roos' 1998 film 'The Opposite of Sex,' which starred Christina Ricci as a manipulative white-trash vamp who shows up on her gay half-brother's doorstep one day, moves in, and gradually proceeds to destroy his life, is one of the most unique and uniquely affecting independent films of recent years: realistic but absurd, heartbreaking but also bitingly, achingly funny, it made a name for Roos and set a high bar for his future work, which 'Happy Endings' unfortunately fails to reach.
'Happy Endings' begins with a somewhat similar premise--a tryst between step-siblings Mamie and Charley, in which the typical power roles are inverted and the female is the seductress of the innocent and naive boy who eventually turns out to be gay (perhaps sparked out of latency by the trauma of impregnating his step-sister). The film jumps forward in chronology, with three separate, interconnected story-lines in play: the grown-up Mamie (Lisa Kudrow), 20 years later, is carrying on a secret affair with Javier (Bobby Cannavale), a Mexican masseuse who occasionally provides 'the full release' for his clients, when an unstable young hipster named Nicky shows up on her doorstep, claiming to have information about the whereabouts of the child she gave up for adoption 20 years before, which he will produce in exchange for letting him film the reunion and its aftermath for a film school audition tape. Meanwhile, Charley (Steve Coogan) is dealing with his own issues related to parenthood, allowing certain suspicions about the child of his and his lover Gil's best friends, a lesbian couple (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke) who had once attempted to get pregnant with Gil's sperm. Charley manages a restaurant featuring karaoke where one night the curiously seductive Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) mesmerizes the karaoke crowd and gains an invitation from Otis (Jason Ritter), a young karaoke d-j who has a crush on Charley, to sing for his band. Jude shortly initiates a plan to seduce Otis' father Frank, a wealthy widower, threatening to out Otis to his father if he interferes.
Each of these story lines advances independently with the occasional technique of a split-screen against which Roos presents somewhat cryptic textual exposition about the characters' lives and futures--the sort of stuff that would typically be delivered in voice-over by a narrator. The technique is interesting at first, but starts to wear thin until the conclusion, when it is over-exploited to swiftly tie up the meandering plot-lines, which never seem to have the sort of resolute connectedness we'd expect them to have.
The big upside of the film is the acting, which, for the most part, is superb. Maggie Gyllenhaal has an odd look--not traditionally beautiful, but alluring, and totally persuasive as a hipster sex-pot in the mold of Christina Ricci's Dede in 'The Opposite of Sex,' and she engenders a powerful love-hate attraction in the audience. Jason Ritter gives a subtle, endearing performance as Otis, suggesting that he's got more going for him as an actor than his late father's connections. Bobby Cannavale is a delight as Javier--sooner or later he will get the big role he deserves after stealing so many scenes in smaller character parts. Jesse Bradford--a more familiar presence in the teen-exploitation genre--is surprisingly strong as the off-kilter Nicky. Tom Arnold all but steals the film as the pathetic Frank, whose loneliness and need are matched only by his warmth and likability.
'Happy Endings' has its moments, but in the end, it just isn't as clever or surprising as it builds itself up to be. The ends never really tie up in a satisfying way, and towards the conclusion, the on-screen narration starts to feel like a cheap device to lend gravitas and cohesiveness to the messy plot. Furthermore, the film is pretty humorless--a tone that seems unsuitable for a story about confused, emotionally immature people whose real connection seems to be a pathological compulsion to act irresponsibly. Roos' knack for clever, quirky characters makes it worth the viewing, but 'Happy Endings' never gives the audience the 'full release.'
'Happy Endings' begins with a somewhat similar premise--a tryst between step-siblings Mamie and Charley, in which the typical power roles are inverted and the female is the seductress of the innocent and naive boy who eventually turns out to be gay (perhaps sparked out of latency by the trauma of impregnating his step-sister). The film jumps forward in chronology, with three separate, interconnected story-lines in play: the grown-up Mamie (Lisa Kudrow), 20 years later, is carrying on a secret affair with Javier (Bobby Cannavale), a Mexican masseuse who occasionally provides 'the full release' for his clients, when an unstable young hipster named Nicky shows up on her doorstep, claiming to have information about the whereabouts of the child she gave up for adoption 20 years before, which he will produce in exchange for letting him film the reunion and its aftermath for a film school audition tape. Meanwhile, Charley (Steve Coogan) is dealing with his own issues related to parenthood, allowing certain suspicions about the child of his and his lover Gil's best friends, a lesbian couple (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke) who had once attempted to get pregnant with Gil's sperm. Charley manages a restaurant featuring karaoke where one night the curiously seductive Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) mesmerizes the karaoke crowd and gains an invitation from Otis (Jason Ritter), a young karaoke d-j who has a crush on Charley, to sing for his band. Jude shortly initiates a plan to seduce Otis' father Frank, a wealthy widower, threatening to out Otis to his father if he interferes.
Each of these story lines advances independently with the occasional technique of a split-screen against which Roos presents somewhat cryptic textual exposition about the characters' lives and futures--the sort of stuff that would typically be delivered in voice-over by a narrator. The technique is interesting at first, but starts to wear thin until the conclusion, when it is over-exploited to swiftly tie up the meandering plot-lines, which never seem to have the sort of resolute connectedness we'd expect them to have.
The big upside of the film is the acting, which, for the most part, is superb. Maggie Gyllenhaal has an odd look--not traditionally beautiful, but alluring, and totally persuasive as a hipster sex-pot in the mold of Christina Ricci's Dede in 'The Opposite of Sex,' and she engenders a powerful love-hate attraction in the audience. Jason Ritter gives a subtle, endearing performance as Otis, suggesting that he's got more going for him as an actor than his late father's connections. Bobby Cannavale is a delight as Javier--sooner or later he will get the big role he deserves after stealing so many scenes in smaller character parts. Jesse Bradford--a more familiar presence in the teen-exploitation genre--is surprisingly strong as the off-kilter Nicky. Tom Arnold all but steals the film as the pathetic Frank, whose loneliness and need are matched only by his warmth and likability.
'Happy Endings' has its moments, but in the end, it just isn't as clever or surprising as it builds itself up to be. The ends never really tie up in a satisfying way, and towards the conclusion, the on-screen narration starts to feel like a cheap device to lend gravitas and cohesiveness to the messy plot. Furthermore, the film is pretty humorless--a tone that seems unsuitable for a story about confused, emotionally immature people whose real connection seems to be a pathological compulsion to act irresponsibly. Roos' knack for clever, quirky characters makes it worth the viewing, but 'Happy Endings' never gives the audience the 'full release.'