Red_Identity I thought this was better than expected. It has some flaws, and the constant title-card telling us what is going on can be a little too pretentious and overly proud of itself in a way tat does get to be an annoyance, but it also works to make the film feel different from others of its kind. It's a Nice sort of quirk, not without its flaws, The acting in this is truly terrific. Kudrow excels, as she always does, but surprisingly (athough not really) the best of the bunch was Laura Dern, injecting so much pathos and backstory and emotion into her little scenes and into her one big scene, which she delivers perfectly. A fantastic actress who's never gotten the due she deserves, definitely a film worth watching. This is definitely recommended, and rather underrated when looking at reviews.

flapdoodle64 This is a very witty and occasionally touching comedy involving love and sex, parents and children. Although dealing with subject matter involving sex and it's consequences, this is a film for grown-ups, it is not a sophomoric raunch-fest. Steve Coogan and Lisa Kudrow, two very fined comedic performers here both do wonderfully in their respective roles, and Maggie Gyllenhal is good as well.Most surprising is the performance of the generally disgusting and unwatchable Tom Arnold, believably playing a likable and emotionally vulnerable idiot. I have to say, when Mr. Arnold is given good writing, direction and is surrounded by good players, he can be pretty good.This film didn't do well commercially and many reviewers here were confused by the fact that there are several different interwoven plot threads. Probably there are reviewers disappointed by the lack of fart jokes as well. Whatever. This film is a comedy produced in the USA that is actually funny and insightful regarding the human condition...that is to say, it is a great rarity.I highly recommend this.

rwtmoore Happy Endings There was attempt to do something original here, unfortunately, the experiment failed. It's more of a graphic novel with moving pictures than it is a film. We're spoodfed ridiculous amounts of exposition via placards that pop up on the side of the screen like fun bubble facts from a video. And what makes it worse is that it's not an objective, ominipotent narration, but a narration that's written in the spoken vernacular with a definite point of view. If it has a definite point of view, who's writing it? Some mysterious omnipotent subjective narrator that we never meet. And we know it's not God, because of the lame attempts at being clever and funny. And just when you think it can't get worse, the fun facts tell us things in the distant past, the distant future, the characters' thoughts, and even what's going on with the bodily functions of some of the characters. Oh man. The story lines aren't very good either. I could not see Mamie going along with the extortion and the other shanigans that goes on after. I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. Most of the dialog was confusing, implausible or just lame. For example, Lane tells Jude, "I still don't see the problem. In a month, you tell the old guy it's his... and then when you deliver, it's like this really big preemie... that just happens to look like both of them. We're not reinenting the wheel here." Yeah, it's the old have sex with the son, have sex with the father and you don't know who got you pregnant. We all know that routine, right? Who hasn't been down that road? It's so ridiculous. The storyline with the lesbians and male gay couple is not much better. It's way too purposely convoluted. It's like the filmmakers are digging to find ways to unnecessarily complicate the storyline. And then there's the hallmark of trendy and lazy filmmakers - the corny montages set to trendy pop music to tell us how to feel. And the split screen thing seemed like it was only there to show that they could do it. And why was Mamie running willy-nilly at the end? When I heard the title, it made me think of that hackneyed joke about massages and I thought the filmmakers were above referencing a stupid, overplayed joke like that. But, sure enough, that's what they were doing. It reminds me of "Coyote Ugly", another waste of film. Virtually every actor in this film is great, but they can't save a script this absurd. It's just so much schlop.

Media_queer I would expect nothing less from a Donn Roos/Lisa Kudrow collaboration than the wonderful film that Happy Endings is. The characters are real. There's no "good guy" or "bad guy" -- there are just honest portrayals of how everyone has issues, secrets, lies, dreams, doubts and agendas.Kudrow is stellar as Mamie, a lost soul of a person who commands a simple dynamism. Maggie G is amazing, she totally "gets" who Jude is and wows us with a great performance. All of the acting is top-notch, as is the story, though I longed for more of a confrontation between Charley and Gil, but maybe that's a reflection of my own issues with cheating. Oh, and Jason Ritter is hella hot! Rent this, add this to your NetFlick queue, buy this used or new -- just see it!