Dark Film Review – Hector and The Search For Happiness
Review Written By Casey Douglass
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| Film Poster © Copyright Relativity Media |
First up, Hector and The Search For Happiness isn’t a particularly dark film. There are night scenes and some peril but on the whole, it could probably be shown during the evening on national TV. That being said, I watched it today and in an effort to keep some kind of writing mojo moving, I thought I’d review it. The film stars Simon Pegg as the titular Hector, a psychiatrist who comes to the realisation that he isn’t actually happy, his life running through the same well-worn patterns and habits, his clockwork-like girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike) seemingly happy to live in the same manner. As with all surface appearances, cracks begin to appear, and after an outburst at a patient, Hector decides he must go on a trip, leaving Clara behind at home.
The film then settles into
quite an easy rhythm, Hector travelling somewhere, meeting someone,
either by chance or some old acquaintance, having some kind of human
experience, be it adventure, peril or some illustration of the fact
that not all humans are total arseholes, and then moving onto the
next location. All of this is then to be condensed down into a one
line summary for the philosophy or pointers of what leads to
happiness, and to then be written in his quaint little notebook. I
lost count of how many tips he ends up coming away with by the end, I
believe it was into the double digits however.
Simon Pegg does do
the bumbling English tourist thing very well; his noisy Velcro
pockets and his inability to hold onto pens all coming across in an
affable, comedic way. That isn’t to say that he finds himself
having a lovely holiday. He does get put through the mill, both
emotionally and physically at times, but the easy pace of the film
and the characters he meets along the way all do a good job of making
it stay interesting. Keep an eye out for the excellent Jean Reno and
Stellan Skarsgård in those respects.
The whole film could
easily be reduced down to one philosophy, “Be open to life and
don’t be too controlling.” But then, wherever would the 90 minute
film be with something as concise as that. I enjoyed watching the
film, as far as it went, but I couldn’t help feeling that it just
feeds the bullshit notion that you have to go to the far flung places
of the world before you can say you have lived. After all, there are
more types of exploration to be made in this life than merely the
geographical. Beyond that nitpick, it was a worthwhile watch and I
enjoyed it more than I expected.
I give Hector and
The Search For Happiness 3.5/5. It won’t blow your socks
off but it was surprisingly acceptable fare.
