SnoopyStyle It's 1983 Los Angeles. Mamie Toll is 17 and her mother marries a rich restaurant chain English guy. She has sex with her new stepbrother Charley Peppitone and later supposedly gets an abortion. Nineteen years later, Mamie (Lisa Kudrow) is a divorced abortion counselor dating masseuse Javier (Bobby Cannavale). Charley (Steve Coogan) runs the only restaurant left over from his father and he's gay now with Gil (David Sutcliffe). Gil's lesbian high school friend Pam (Laura Dern) and her partner Diane (Sarah Clarke) have a son Max and Charley starts to suspect the paternity. Restaurant worker Otis (Jason Ritter) is a closeted gay from his father Frank (Tom Arnold) and dealing with his band singer Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Manipulative filmmaker Nicky (Jesse Bradford) tries to blackmail Mamie for $25k to give the present name of her son who she didn't actually abort.The characters are all interconnected in modern familial ways. There are probably too many characters and stories. The stories meander in sometimes usual ways. I like some of the acting. Tom Arnold surprises me by doing real acting. I don't particularly like the closing texts for each character. It becomes more or less like a laundry list of their futures. That only accentuates the problem with this movie. Every character has to have a plot and I am suppose to care about them.

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.

[email protected] 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.

Ann Burlingham (annb-4) 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.