A recent summer addition to Netflix’s chain of movies is Happiness for Beginners. This movie was directed by Vicky Wight, director of The Lost Husband. The movie Happiness for Beginners came out in July of this year, and is rated TV-14. The movie’s cast is Luke Grimes as Jake, Ellie Kemper as Helen, Ben Cook as Becket, and Nico Santos as Hugh.
The movie is a contemporary, romantic comedy based around Helen, a not outgoing and boxed-up main character. The main character goes on a hiking trip after her rough divorce to try to get in touch with herself again. The camping trip is said to be for beginners but has her eyes opened finding out the journey would be more for character development. She faced past experiences and had to overcome them
Happiness for Beginners has a Tomatometer score of 33% and an audience score of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Niel Minow, a top critic, referenced the movie’s scenery when making a review and said, “Like a mapped-out trail, you know where it will end up, but there’s enough to enjoy along the way.” A reviewer named Jennifer Green on the site said, “
This low-key ensemble hiking tale matches its forest setting, attractive but never stunning, pleasant but not extraordinary.“ A third and final review of thought would be made by Allen Almachar, “Are there better rom-com options out there? Sure, but there’s also a ton that are worse.” The reviews seem to have a sure feeling that the movie wasn’t worth it.
The movie may be seemingly dull or uninteresting to some of those who watch it. Yes, it is a movie from a high-budget film company, however, it is a romance movie. Of course, someone ends up with someone, the thing is if she is going to end up with someone she has to have interactions with the other person and you can make the assumption that they will end up together. On a different note, had I not known it was a romance I wouldn’t have guessed who she would end up dating until halfway through the movie. The movie had stiff jokes but some can make you laugh. The movie is rated for teenagers, you can’t expect it to have too many layers of depth and it is a movie that is less than two hours long. The movie does add to the Netflix library of senseless and simple movies but it isn’t terrible. It is definitely better than some of the movies that were popularized to an extreme before they came out. The movie is simple and can be enjoyable. I wouldn’t exactly recommend it but I wouldn’t be opposed to watching it again and recommending it. I would rate this movie an 8/10, because it wasn’t too bad and had a colorful cast and just entertaining interactions between characters.
