...an uneven, sometimes rambling journey that elicits mostly false emotion with regard to the payoff suggested by its title.
Comment
08/29/05
Happy Endings (2005)
56
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:101
Fresh:57
Rotten:44
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Despite strong individual performances, the overlong, disjointed plot of Happy Endings self-indulgently rambles.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $1,172,987
Synopsis: Mamie is being blackmailed. This filmmaker named Nick claims to know Mamie’s son – the one she gave up for adoption – but Nick won’t introduce her to him unless he can film the reunion. Enter... [More]
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter, Laura Dern
Director: Don Roos
Reviews for Happy Endings
Lisa Kudrow's sporting serious brown hair. Tom Arnold's wearing a rare dramatic frown. So we know Happy Endings isn't likely to be a frivolous comedy.
08/12/05
Intriguing but overlong and indulgent, the work of a writer too in love with his characters.
08/11/05
Serves as a relaunching pad for the magical talents of Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jude.
08/11/05
...although it's generally entertaining throughout, Happy Endings just doesn't have the emotional impact that Roos is clearly striving for.
08/07/05
Overstuffed with characters and contrivances.
08/05/05
Roos's movie is so aggressively pleased with itself it leaves you feeling it doesn't even need an audience.
08/05/05
Roos does better at imparting a sense of the striving that's inherent to L.A., letting us know, through the characters' living situations, that not everyone shares in the town's magic.
08/05/05
It isn't quite right to call Happy Endings a comedy, although the film does have plenty of dark humour. It's more of an urban fairy tale, and a positive urban fairy tale about the pursuit of love.
08/05/05
[It] feels like Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia for adolescents.
08/05/05
Even more cynical than the characters in Happy Endings is how Roos treats them in the final reel.
08/05/05
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08/05/05
Having whipped up three basic story ideas, any one of which could be the basis of a decent feature, Roos throws them all in together and gussies them up with preposterous complications.
08/04/05
[Roos']s writing is facile--he needs actors like Kudrow and Gyllenhaal to give his work depth and texture, and he seems to sense it without jealousy.
08/03/05
Unabashedly sentimental (cheekily couched in a black-comic guise), with Roos acting as a sort of benevolent god over his characters.
07/31/05
Like the pilot for a pretentious HBO 'dramedy' that expects us to contemplate its significance during the silences that broadcast television would fill with a laugh track.
07/29/05
It's easy to guess everything that happens long before it does, and the 'shocking' secrets are anything but.
07/28/05
[S]ing[s] with truths about how we define love today and why we embrace chaos over order in personal relationships...
07/28/05
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07/28/05
Top CriticClick to read the article
07/28/05
Top CriticLatest News for Happy Endings
November 17, 2005:
Oh It's Already Been Broughten (Part 3)
A fresh press release from Universal informs us that there will soon be a "Bring It On 3" to enjoy, but also reminds us that, hey yeah, there WAS a direct-to-video... More...
March 09, 2005:
The director arranged to have a physical obstacle—a countertop, a couch—between Tom Arnold and his gay son in every scene until they reconcile. 
More...
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