Very Cool!!!

Sick Product of a Sick System

Good movie but grossly overrated

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Warning: The second paragraph of this review contains some comments that some might possibly consider a "spoiler."This essentially is a movie about the issues of abortion, adoption, test tube babies and other unconventional procreation, marital and relationship issues, including sexual orientation and a phony marriage for immigration purposes. It is not an advocacy movie; rather, it explores in a serious but semi-comic manner how decisions affect a menage of lives.There is a pregnancy resulting from a coupling of a boy and a girl who technically is his step sister although they are from two different sets of parents. There is a child born to a lesbian couple using a sperm donor, whose father may or may not be one of a gay couple who are friends of the lesbians. There is a woman who never saw the child she gave up for adoption and supposedly didn't want anything to do with except ***POSSIBLE SPOILER**** we learn that she notifies the adoption agency of her changes of address. One woman sleeps with a supposedly gay boy and later dumps him for his father. ***END SPOILER*** Throughout these serious dramatic episodes, the screen writer provides us little light messages that tell us, the audience, a little about how things will turn out and in essence not to take everything too seriously, despite the seriousness of action.I thought the way the film jumped around in time and story line and eventually tied everything together was well done, and the text "asides" seemed like innovative resurrection of a technique from silent film days.I particularly liked Lisa Kudrow's performance (another role she selected that runs counter to the comic character she created years ago for the TV shows "Friends" and "Mad About You.") Maggie Gyllenhaal was also excellent as the scheming temptress. Tom Arnold was also very good.

Don Roos wrote and directed this lively, sometimes poignant, but not especially funny comedy-drama centering around an abortion counselor's secret that she had given birth to her step-brother's baby when she was a teenager and quickly gave it up for adoption. In this role, Lisa Kudrow really excels with the writer-director's dryly observant style: she's loose but not flailing, inquisitive but not harping, apprehensive but not frightened. Kudrow (whose comic timing reminds one of Roseanne's in the early years of her TV sitcom) mixes a look of anxiety, despair, nervousness and anticipation with astonishing skill--even when her character is humiliated (or humiliates herself), Kudrow has a way of keeping all the flightiness grounded in some form of reality. Matching her, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tom Arnold have some wonderful early scenes; she's a born user and a killer karaoke singer, while he plays the father of the gay 21-year-old drummer whom Gyllenhaal has already seduced and discarded. It's too bad we don't get more of this relationship, and also unfortunate that Roos covers up most of their dialogue with soundtrack music (it's a coupling which happens in montage). Roos plants little subtitles throughout the movie to help sort out who's-who, and this works to some degree (yet it's a relief when the device is momentarily given a rest). Some of the other story threads are dim (a couple of which center on gay men turning their homosexuality on and off like a light-switch), but Kudrow's work and Tom Arnold's natural, easy-going presence keep the film absorbing and often appealing. And nobody sings "Just the Way You Are" like Gyllenhaal. **1/2 from ****

In her role as a sexy, unscrupulous gold-digger, Maggie Gyllenhaal steals this picture out from under the noses of her co-stars. Lisa Kudrow is excellent as the teen-age mom who gave her baby away at birth -- and she and her step-brother who made her pregnant are sympathetic figures as is Laura Dern as a lesbian mother. Maggie, on the other hand, acting the part of an amoral, ruthless temptress, ready to seduce a young homosexual then leave him for his wealthy father, is irresistible. I don't know how much the sound engineers are responsible for her singing and how much of the credit belongs Maggie herself, but she also produces several wonderful moments as a singer, edging her way into an aspiring band. Comparing this film to the work of Robert Altman is an enormous stretch. Happy Endings is episodic and overlaps several different plots but that's where the comparison begins and ends. Altman was a master. This is a journeyman's film: fun but forgettable.

Unexpected, intelligent, engrossing. I haven't been driven to recover my IMDb account to write a review for years, until watching this. A very satisfying comedy, beautifully acted, with Kudrow and Gyllenhaal standing out. The structure, starting in one moment, then moving to the past while giving the audience titles commenting, with reassurances or warnings, surprises and adds to the overall effects of an intricately structured, cleverly constructed story - or rather, stories, that connect slightly and dance around each other. Characters who in other comedies would do certain things don't do those obvious things in this movie; people behave like people, for the most part. What's it about? Lies, secrets, people lying to themselves, people becoming some part of the lies they tell; people telling the truth and almost always landing on their feet. Roos's titles are less explanatory than they first appear; the last one contributes to the overall feeling that yes, this is a story being told, and, like writers, good filmmakers often tell stories about characters over whom they feel little control. Showing that to the viewer makes the film feel alive, the characters more real. The music adds both a lightness and poignancy. A few sour notes sounded - the lesbian couple behaved in a more sit-commy, over-the-top way than I thought believable - but overall, this was a movie I was happy to be swept away by, and look forward to seeing again. Gyllenhaal shines - but they all do - I never imagined liking Tom Arnold in a role, yet he comes across as vulnerable, likable, and kind. Just about all the actors and characters are equally well-served. In the end, it's clear the filmmaker cares for them, faults and all; it's the message he sends with Gyllenhaal's final song. Despite fraught moments, broken relationships, gun-pointing, and big secrets, it's rightly billed as a comedy - human nature is celebrated, flaws and all. Just outstanding.