Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

bowmanblue I've always enjoyed 'Happiness,' despite asking myself WHY I ever bothered to watch it after every single viewing. Yes, the title is deliberately ironic as there is barely a trace of anything vaguely happy in the entire mover, but then it knows that. It's safe to say that 'Happiness' is definitely not a 'feel-good' film and you really do need to know what you're in for before you sit down to invest over two hours with this manic depressive beast of a movie.I suppose you could call it an 'ensemble' piece as there are numerous characters all woven together around the three central characters who are sisters all at various stages of adulthood and doing their best to either live with what's become their lot in life, or desperately try to change it. It's basically a family drama, but with a few – very – dark helpings of black humour. However, the overriding thing to say about 'Happiness' is that it deals with the worst themes you can probably think of and presents them in a way that forces you to think about those who it's easy to despise without a second thought. Therefore, you don't just have to be in the mood for something depressing, but also something that really goes into areas of human nature that you would probably not like to dwell on, most notably child abuse.'Happiness' is a film that will certainly leave an impact on you, even if it's just you swearing you will never watch something like that again. However, for all the darkness and realism it presents, I have watched it about three times and I think it's a worthy film. The performances are all excellent. You'd be hard put to it to find a weak link among the cast. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is naturally excellent, but perhaps the hardest role falls to Dylan Baker who plays possibly one of the most (bizarrely!) relatable child molesters you've ever met. It must have been a horrible role for him and he plays it to perfection.Like I say, don't expect feel-good and get ready for a rough ride. But, if you're in the mood for something as deep as this it will certainly make you wonder who's sitting opposite you and what goes on behind the façade of family-friendly life.

michaelmunkvold To call Todd Solondz's "Happiness" a dark comedy is to redefine the words "dark" and "comedy". It hates the world and everyone in it, and takes great pleasure in mocking people stupid enough to try to be happy. In Solondz's world, life is pointless, hope is for suckers, and everybody is basically bad at heart. It says something that the movie's most human, sympathetic character is a child molester.And, yes, it's a comedy - often a very, very funny one. Funny in a morbid, gallows humor, dead baby joke sort of way, but funny nonetheless.The chief characters in "Happiness" are all stunted, narcissistic and hopelessly inadequate. Joy (Jane Adams) is a born loser who drifts through a series of menial jobs and drives her boyfriend to suicide; her sister Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle) is so self-absorbed that she thinks her biggest problem is that everyone loves her too much; her neighbor Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) can only connect to people by making obscene phone calls; and Bill (Dylan Baker), his therapist and Joy and Helen's brother-in-law, is a pedophile who rapes two of his 11-year-old son's friends. Somehow, Solondz makes these horrible people really, really funny. Like John Waters and the Farrelly Brothers, Solondz finds humor in ugliness and revels in bad taste. He makes sexual dysfunction and personal failure brutally funny; Allen's obscene phone calls, for example, are almost endearing in their ineptitude and anatomical incorrectness ("I'm gonna f*** you in the... ear"), while Helen's narcissism makes her gloriously clueless ("If only I had been raped as a child - then I would know authenticity!"). Solondz shows his characters in a clear, satiric light, and it despises them.While Solondz may not like his characters, he does not take the easy way out by making them caricatures. Every one of these awful human beings is a three-dimensional character with reasons for being awful.For example, most directors would have made Bill a one-note villain, but Solondz makes him a pitiful monster who is tortured by ghastly sexual urges that he knows are wrong. There's a tough scene near the end where Bill has a frank talk with his son Billy about his pedophilia, admitting: that he enjoyed raping his victims; that he would do it again; and, while he would not rape his own son, he would "jerk off instead". Both father and son are crying - Billy with horror as he realizes just what Bill is, and Bill with shame and despair as he realizes the same thing. It's hard to watch, but it's an acting master class and absolutely fearless film-making.This is a real actor's movie; the cast gives career-best performances. Baker is both horrifying and heartbreaking as Bill; he squirms in his own skin, as if he is being eaten alive by his own sickness. We pity him, whether we want to or not. Hoffman is hilariously pathetic as Allen, sweating and mumbling with lonely self-hatred. Adams is sad and sweet as the luckless Helen, the closest thing the movie has to a moral center, while Boyle is priceless as the contemptible Helen, swanning around as if waiting for the world to thank her for being born."Happiness" is the epitome of "acquired taste" - its humor is bitter, acidic and often cruel, and it takes real joy in offending the audience. Go elsewhere for a feel-good comedy with a happy ending. If nothing else, though, it's a true original, and deserves credit for carving out its own niche in the "dark comedy" genre.

Pozdnyshev I watched this movie when I was a film school student. It was brand new, hot out of distribution, and I'd heard of Todd Solondz as a filmmaker who dared to make "different" films, which I figured meant "superior." See, it worked as entertainment, the acting and photography was fine. And yeah, it WAS "different." A pedophile is shown in a sympathetic light. Some fat loser uses his own jizz to stick pictures to the wall of his tiny studio apartment. Yeah, that's different. But what was the point in showing us all this sh*t? And why is it even entertaining to watch? Because the movie conditions me to think that this is reality, and that I should join the director in being comfortable with reality. Like, if these sick situations are so common that all these people are having them at once, then I should be cool with it and be a little proud of how this movie enlightened me.It's scary how they pulled this off. Young and impressionable, I ignored how disgusting and bereft of meaning this movie was because it LOOKED good and I understood it was "hip." I ate it up and almost fifteen years later, the foul aftertaste still lingers in the back of my mind.Ugh. Everything's propaganda now. I have had my share of sickness, and this movie isn't "groundbreakingly truthful," I think it's the director trying to convince everyone else of his deeply cynical and unrealistic view of middle- class America. Also, I don't know how this would play out in reality, but I doubt that a little boy getting sodomized by a grown man during a drugged stupor would just wake up the next morning without being being very upset and in a lot of pain. Exploiting child rape and trying to pull it off like it's dark comedy, there should be a name for that. Something that means "vapid and often offensive bullsh*t masquerading as having substance." I think "hipster crack" is a good enough term. There's just something off about it, something fake, something truly sick and immature. Like a friendly kid who wears expensive clothes and has lots of cool stuff, but when you visit his house he wants to play by torturing cats.

SnoopyStyle Joy Jordan (Jane Adams) and Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) are a sad couple on a really bad date. He berates her mercilessly. Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a pervert and his psychiatrist Bill Maplewood (Dylan Baker) cares little for his fantasies. Helen Jordan (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a lonely successful author whose neighbor Allen makes obscene phone calls. Trish Maplewood (Cynthia Stevenson) is the oldest Jordan sister and married to Bill Maplewood. She's bossy to her youngest sister Joy. She has 3 children but she doesn't know that her husband has disturbing thoughts and they have a sexless marriage. The Jordan sisters' parents Mona (Louise Lasser) and Lenny (Ben Gazzara) are separating after 40 years of marriage. And that's not to mention the disturbing things that Bill Maplewood gets up to.This is a mass of unhappy people. The title is a bit of a joke. Everybody is damaged. They do disturbing things. They hurt each other. Mostly they are their own worst enemy. It's not funny. It's not lovable. I have no wish to spend any time with any of them. It is a disappointing turn from writer/director Todd Solondz who made 'Welcome to the Dollhouse'. I actually like the character in that movie. I find no happiness in wallowing in this tale of human misery.