Happiness for Beginners

Making an interesting rom-com is hard, simply because of how familiar the subject is. Happiness for Beginners doesn't really break new ground, but it's a lighthearted watch that manages to keep you interested. The characters are grounded and realistic, each with their own quirks. The leads keep you absorbed in the story. The side-characters bring their own unique perspectives and motivations. The romance grows slowly and organically, and never feels forced into the narrative. The visuals of the Appalachian trail are beautiful. All of this is done with a light touch that makes the movie easy to watch, and the overall result is something sweet that I think I'll be coming back to.

This is a feel-good movie with a throwback feel, one in which the writers aren't trying to shock or offend you, or bombard you with whatever the latest work lesson is from the perpetually-offended or pretend-to-be offended calvary.

This movie is the rare family-friendly movie that will appeal to most ages regardless of background or culture. It employs universal themes of self love, childhood crushes, second chances, finding hope again, etc. It just gives you that tingly feeling in your stomach, the kind that makes you glad or at least not perturbed that you spent a couple hours watching this random flick.

Recommended for anyone who just wants an easy, feel-good experience. I think the movie did what it set out to do, nothing more, nothing less.

I love Luke Grimes and watched this for him, and he is tender and sweet and lovable, but his co-lead is badly miscast with Kemper. She's great in other things, but she is not a believable love interest for Grimes and her character is irksome, at best, almost throughout, with only momentary glimpses of redemption. The screenplay, adapted from a book, fails to portray her character growth alongside him, fails to show enough of their shared moments prior to THE HIKE, and indeed seems to leave out a lot of the most inspirational stuff from the book itself. If this screenwriter had some childish concept that she was a better writer than the book author, let us disabuse her of that silly notion. I liked the supporting cast, but they weren't fleshed out enough. At the end of the day, it was pretty to watch but Kemper was mostly very grating, the romance was unbelievable, and there wasn't enough material regarding how to be happy for this to truly feel like a feel-good flick. Only one character who brought up 3 things we're grateful for even seemed like a vague reference to the title, the book, and presumably the entire point. It seems a shame, bc the setting was so lovely and you had Grimes ON SET as well. They should have just shot him walking around on those trails sharing his personal thoughts...that would have earned a higher rating.

I cannot wait to read this book. At the 1.33 mark I went to Libby and tagged it, there was already a group of people that had a hold on it. I keep wondering how it is going to end.

I don't know what drew us to watch it, but what a great decision. My wife would say it was Luke Grimes, yea I get it. What I really liked about this movie, and can't wait to explore it in the book was that in the beginning everyone had their flaws and it looked as though there was going to be way too much stress. All of a sudden I realized how harmoniously they were with each other. Really made me smile.

The locale that this was shot was beautiful. The scenes of the group hiking in the meadows and on tree lines was very happy as they hiked in a single file line.

I'm glad we found this as it was released only 2 days prior to us seeing it.

I can now read the reviews and see what other views of this are. I hate reading reviews prior to seeing a movie. If you are one of those who read the reviews prior to watching a movie and you are reading this...by all means you need to watch this, hopefully you will not be disappointed.

Took a flyer on this and enjoyed it. Some cute, funny and quirky characters. A plot and dialog that moves the tale along. Absolutely stunning New England fall scenery.

Didn't read the book - didn't even know there war one - so had no basis for comparison.

One note: thought the editing could have been a tad tighter for such an easy going movie. A dozen minutes shorter would have made it even better.

Overall think of this as a Hallmark movie in the woods and you won't be disappointed. A fun date night movie where people find themselves and true love triumphs in the end. Go in with those expectations and.you won't be disappointed.