癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

Happily Ever After ???? Yep !!!!


The Politics of Life...
Gay writer/director Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) returns in prime form with a wicked ensemble comedy about a group of gay, lesbian and hetero friends and family connected by secrets and lies.. In this amazing ensemble comedy about the messes of life, Roos opens and heals family and romantic wounds with grace, intelligence and wit.....

"Happy Endings " is written and directed by Don Roos, who wrote a Gr8 film back in the '90s called "The Opposite of Sex ."
"Happy Endings " is a very misogynistic movie about liars, cheaters, and abortion.
It's one of those films with multiple running plot lines that all interconnect at the end.
It stars Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Laura Dern, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

This film has an opening that certainly catches your attention.
It shows Kudrow running down a street and crying while somebody behind her shouts at her.
She runs out into a street and is hit by a van, then we get a nice bloody close-up shot of her face.
You think she's dead , but she's not, thanks to an informative little text block that appears.
Through much of the first act of the film, a bunch of text blocks appear on screen to give us background info on the characters or their feelings.
It is a neat little gimmick at first, but used too much.
This film deals with a lot of issues, the same way that film did, and for a while this film was better.
It's certainly more original, in the format and everything...

I the actors in this film better, but this movie suffers from one major flaw.
It's too long.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind long movies or anything...
It's just that this is a movie that should run 90 minutes.
Tops.
This film runs 128 minutes.
Too long. But the film is pretty interesting.
The movie opens with a woman (Lisa Kudrow, 'The Opposite of Sex' ) running down as street and then she's hit by a car.
As this happens, the movie goes split-screen and we're told that she isn't dead and no one dies oncamera in this film...

【Lisa Kudrow】 Happy Endings 【Steve Coogan】
Dirty Great Omission

Bobby Cannavale is very funny in his role as Mexican-born masseuse Javier who steals the scene every time he's in front of the documentary camera while revealing a strange dark side that gives him more edge into his performance.
Jesse Bradford gives probably his finest and most abrasive performance to date as a scruffy, post-Fragile Trent Reznor-look-a-like, wannabe filmmaker with his artistic drive and surefire attitude.
Bradford really gives the film not just a comic edge but also a brooding tone as he shines in his scenes with Cannavale and Lisa Kudrow.
Kudrow also steals the show in her best performance to date as the cautious , secretive Mamie as she just brings a bit of humor but shows more range in her ability in drama as she really brings the emotional center of the film with Bradford as her confrontational partner.

Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a fantastic, dark performance as a malcontent bohemian who is looking for ways to break things down.
Gyllenhaal uses her sassiness, sexiness, and demeanor to give her character an angst that is needed for the film.
It's probably her most fulfilling performance since her 2002 breakthrough performance in "Secretary " as this performance nearly tops it as she along with Kudrow and Bradford give out masterful, realistic performances.
The film's best performance overall goes to Steve Coogan as the openly-gay but troublesome Charley who tries to be opportunistic but fails.
Coogan uses his British, slapstick-comedy style in classy ways for lighthearted humor while delivering some of his best dramatic work in heart-punching scenes as his character represents the flaws and foolishness of all the characters in this film.

I do have minor complaints with this film.
First was the use of title cards as a narrative device.
Instead of a voiceover, the screen would split and one half would contain a description of something that I should be figuring out on my own.
They actually started to aggravate me because they took me completely out of the film.
Well, some of them anyway.
As I got more comfortable with the film and they got less frequent and began imparting more peripheral context, I appreciated them a bit more.
I just think they were overused.....

I also wasn't completely convinced about Charley's (Steve Coogan) motivation in lying to Pam (Laura Dern) in such a cruel way to try and confirm his suspicions.
I won't reveal how, but let's just say that he should have expected what was going to happen when the truth was revealed.
That seemed like a misguided decision on Roos' part to doom that set of relationships so he could get to the ending that he wanted.
I think that whole storyline, in fact, could have been handled a little more elegantly.
Lazy writing in an otherwise carefully crafted script.

"Happy Endings " is a flat-out, dark comedic masterpiece from Don Roos helmed by a superb cast led by Kudrow, Gyllenhaal, Bradford, and Coogan.
This film is no Magnolia; a superior ensemble film with a similar set of interconnecting stories but with a heavy dose of style to go with its substance.
This is much more straightforward storytelling.
It's billed as a dark comedy, and while it has some comedic elements, don't expect hilarity.

Instead, expect to be absorbed by the story, emotionally connected to the characters, and charmed by the presence of some fine actors at work.
While it's not a safe film to watch with some scenes to be flat-out funny for all the wrong reasons, it's one of the smartest and more original films to come out.
Don Roos proves himself again to be a king of shock with a dose of heart and questions about the moral values of America.
Might not be the film of the year but it's certainly one of the best and smartest comedies to come out at an age of cheap humor that doesn't add much.
Plus, like the title itself, it too wants to wish its audience of a real idea of happy endings.