Happy Ever Afters

I rented this last night to watch with my partner and mother-in-law.

It is utter rubbish. From the corny music, to the very poorly executed 'comedy of errors' acting/editing, to the completely disengaging male lead (he spends a good deal of the film sighing and fumbling for words, but not in a well timed way) this film is completely egregious from beginning until about 20 minutes in when we turned it off and watched 'Everybody's Fine' instead (which by the way, is amazing).

We rented this from our Apple TV, and at one point I did consider penning an email to Steve Jobs to outline my disgust at it being added to the line-up on there.

Wonderful, relaxing, a bit crazy. This movie is great. I can't believe how underrated it is. Normally, I'd have given it a 9, but I chose 10 to rise up it's mark a little.

The plot - twisted, crazy, chaotic. And this is exactly what makes this movie so great. The characters - I just fell in love with them. They're so witty and spiritual. At the end, I was thinking 'Oh common....no one acts like that; no one, after all that, keeps having fun; ...but actually, it would be SO nice if people were like that...'

I think beneath all the chaotic stuff that happens throughout the movie, there is a very simple idea: you just have to take life as it is and enjoy every second of it.

Whatever one's cinema tastes are, I think it is impossible not to appreciate this movie, marked by that sound Irish feeling for sound fun, but never disregarding some serious reflections. Two odd, newly married couples find at the same restaurant for their wedding receptions, where things will get confused, giving rise to misunderstandings, crises and final catharses. One couple is made up by Sally, in desperate need for money for her and her daughter, who has married Wilfred, a black man, in need of a citizenship, the other is the marriage between Freddie who has married who had already been his former wife, Sophie, and after a divorce and some psychoanalysis went to the altar for the second time, as a sort of last chance, with good intentions but no convictions. It s an intelligent movie, in the way it poses some questions on the real nature of marriage: despite the two major stories, also the minor characters will gradually question their relations and the meaning of their lives, and the hours spent in that restaurant will be revealing. It is interesting in the way, in the end women make the definite and resolute decisions, knowing they have to come to terms with their destiny with courage and strength, even if without a man, even against family pressure, whereas men never show any single sign of courage and determination, and just act according to women's choices. There are also some moving, but never pathetic moments, to be enjoyed as truly genuine. And the girl playing the little daughter, acting as a trait d'union between all these interrupted souls, is great. This movie proves how a well cast (both main characters and secondary ones) together with an intelligent script can make out an intelligent product, although not original in content, but certainly worth seeing as feel-good, genuinely entertaining and honest.

Maura (Sally Hawkins) is an Irish single mother to Molly (Sinead Maguire), a bright and energetic twelve year old. But, alas, times are not good and Maura is losing her furniture and, perhaps, her lease as money has dried up. Therefore, Maura enters into a fake marriage agreement with African immigrant Wilson (Ariyon Bakare). He will get to stay in the country; he will pay Maura 9,000. Also getting married for the second time is Freddie (Tom Riley) and Sophie (Jade Yurell), resulting in much apprehension; are they really doing the right thing? As luck would have it, these two couples take part in a dual marriage ceremony and hold receptions in the same building. Also on hand are a bevy of mixed up guests, parents, and, ho ho, two immigration officers who doubt Maura's wedding is real. As Maura crosses paths with Freddie, a lot, and Wilson tries to pass his girlfriend off as his sister, poor Molly gets more and more fed up as she realizes she's not getting a new dad, not really. How will this all shake down? This great Irish comedy-farce has charms for most fans of laughter and romance. Hawkins, Riley, Bakare, Yurell, and especially Maguire give fine performances while the supporting cast will keep everyone in stitches. How lilting, too, is the Irish way of speaking English while sets, costumes, script and direction fulfill every expectation of quality. Hallelujah, wanna get happy? Happily Ever Afters is bound to please.

I really wanted to like and enjoy this movie, but it's just not terribly good, all in all. I liked pretty much all the actors, and would like to see them in other, better movies. (I'd particularly like to see the actress playing *I think* Karen, Maura's sister or close friend; her character gets somewhat dropped in the course of the movie.) This movie was just so disjointed and ridiculous; disjointed and ridiculous is not a deal-breaker for me, but it has to work, and this just didn't. One indication of how negative an impression this made on me is reflected in what I just wrote in the message section: The element that most stood out for me in this middling little movie was the ridiculous inconsistency of the hair on Sally Hawkins' head. I'm not one of those people who generally notice goofs and screw-ups in continuity, but this was so 'in your face,' even I couldn't miss it.

Even within many little scenes, from shot to shot, her hairstyle changes. Sometimes it's fairly natural looking, with a part on her left side, the bangs falling in a few segments, and the entire shape not terribly big; sometimes it's kind of like that, but with a slightly larger shape, probably from teasing yielding a bit more 'lift'; sometimes it's kind of like that, but the hair darker and more smoothed, sometimes with the bangs all sticking together in one piece; sometimes there's no part at all; and there's one point (while Maura and Freddy are outside looking for Molly, who ends up being up in a tree) where the hair appears to be a helmet-y, yucky looking wig (no part there, either).

It got to be really annoying; couldn't help wondering why no one could be bothered trying to keep any kind of continuity in that element. In that scene where she particularly seems to be wearing a wig, I was taken out of the story again, wondering if these shots were filmed much later than the rest, and maybe Sally H. had cut all her hair off, so they had to use a wig and didn't have time to get a good one, and get it styled right. Just so sloppy (kind of like the run-on sentence I just typed). Too bad, but at least it's not a great movie otherwise either, in which case it would have been a real shame.