Calgary International Film Festival 2014 - Hector and the Search for Happiness Review

Posted on Friday, September 19, 2014 at 01:00 AM

CIFF 2014 Review: Hector and the Search for Happiness

Review by CalgaryMovies.com X Christopher Lee

Happiness is elusive. Everyone wants it and some spend their entire lives chasing it. Are you happy? What does happiness mean to you? Will you find happiness by watching this film? The answer to the last question awaits below.

Director Peter Chelsom (Serendipity, Hannah Montana: The Movie), tackles the first book of the “Hector” series, the international bestseller Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord. Intended to cater to the masses, this feel good film offers humor and lessons to those seeking their own happiness. It is clear that Peter’s career trajectory is toward feel-good filmmaking, as there is always a need for a nice cheer me up type of film.

Our protagonist, Hector (Simon Pegg, who also happens to voice a character in another CIFF film, The Boxtrolls) is a clinical psychiatrist who has an ideal lifestyle. Hector is introduced to us as perfectly happy and content with his world, his career, his girlfriend, his wealth, his home. He is eccentric and very much awkward, glasses and bowtie to match. Not to mention, a good hearted person, since he loves to help others. At the same time, like a child, Hector is innocent and naive to the world outside of his routine existence.

We are introduced to his daily surroundings, most importantly the people he interacts with. Dissatisfied with life, his clients continue to return to Hector on a weekly basis to drone on about how miserable they are. Hector starts becoming unsympathetic to their problems and begins to drift during the sessions by doodling and using his patented technique of “answering a question with a question” to get by. In addition to that, at home, his girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike) does everything for him, including organizing his sock drawer. In some circles she would be considered an enabler, because she re-enforces Hector’s eccentric habits and routines, and essentially “mothering” him.

All this eats away at Hector on the inside and not surprisingly, he snaps one day. Curious about the world, he declares he needs a vacation and decides to book a journey to some far off lands, in the guise of research and helping mankind, to search for the secret to happiness. He leaves his practice, tells Clara that he needs to go on this journey alone, and packs his bags. We follow Hector first to Shanghai, then to Tibet, Africa, and Los Angeles. We find out later why he chose Africa and Los Angeles, but the reason he chose China is portrayed as seemingly random.

As expected, this becomes a “fish out of water” situation, as we watch the train wreck of misadventures that Hector gets himself into. Then from each adventure, Hector learns a lesson about happiness and writes it down in his notebook. Unfortunately, this is where the film really falters, the situations are extreme and clichéd and completely not something a moviegoer searching for happiness will ever encounter if they went travelling. In fact, some of the ridiculous events, involves full out ignorance edging on racism, in such that the film re-enforces stereotypes of the regions that Hector visits. Shanghai = wealthy businessmen, prostitutes. Tibet = monks Africa = poverty, drug lords, African kidnappers. Seriously.

That’s not to say this film isn’t charming at its center. In a cute, yet awkward way, Hector bumbles his way through his journey finding joy in the different experiences he has. Simon Pegg gives his best efforts to play the Hector character, constantly mugging and pulling laughs from the audience via sight gags and quirky actions. For dog lovers, although never explained in the film, a boston terrier shows up in Hector’s dream sequences to get the audience to coo. Eventually Hector does reach a culmination of his journey, and in predictable fashion, grows up, finds what his joy is, and returns to his life in England.

The reality is that happiness is a complex topic and very subjective. This film takes the easy way and offers surface level conclusions. Instead of having the audience discover the secrets happiness themselves and what it means to them, the secrets to happiness are handed out in prepackaged morsels, much akin to a blog on BuzzFeed listing the top 10 things that can make you happy. Whenever Hector learns a lesson, a written scribe goes across the screen telling the audience exactly what that lesson was.

So given all my preamble above, does your search for happiness end with this film? Let’s just say judging a movie by its title can lead to false expectations in this case. If you are well travelled, looking for a beautifully cinematography of foreign lands, wanting a Life of Pi styled introspective film, and hoping for some answers to your life, this is NOT for you.

That said, if you are having a rainy day, need a light hearted, brainless comedy as a pick me up, your search ends with this film.

This film was pre-screened at the Calgary International Film Festival 2014, showing on Friday, September 19 @ 7:00 PM at Eau Claire Cinemas.