Tiempos Felices

It took several minutes after this movie had ended to realize that my Hollywood-and-Britain-conditioned reaction to it was wrong. This is a pretty darn good film.

A man who really doesn't know what he wants, but thinks he wants out of a relationship with a clingy woman, hires a mysterious firm to do it for him, because he's too weak-willed or too nice to just come out and do it. The breakup firm works strangely, and you suspect it's a scam, but by the end of the movie you realize they were playing a long game - though not necessarily the game you expect.

Happy Times is a bit wacky, a mix of light comedy and serious drama with intrigue mixed in. In the end, it works well. The acting and the technical elements are fine. And in a sneakily grown-up way, this movie reminds us that infatuation is not love, that love is not trivial, and that marriage is not to be entered into lightly. While many movies mix fun with a message - the raunchy sex comedy Dirty Grandpa being perhaps an extreme example - Happy Times does it better than most. I quickly came to care about both lead characters, and was kept wondering right up to the end what the mystery firm's real goal was.

It's worth watching.