Happiness for Beginners

2023

Comedy / Drama / Romance

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 52% · 26 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 52% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 21904 21.9K

romantic comedy romcom comforting

Plot summary

At a crossroads after her divorce, a schoolteacher ventures toward a fresh start in life — and love — when she signs up for a grueling group hiking trip.

Director

Vicky Wight Photo
Vicky Wight

Top cast

Luke Grimes Photo
Luke Grimes as Jake
Ellie Kemper Photo
Ellie Kemper as Helen
Blythe Danner Photo
Blythe Danner as Gigi
Alexander Koch Photo
Alexander Koch as Duncan
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 1080p.WEB 2160p.WEB
974.79 MB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   ar   ca   cz   dk   de   gr   es   eu   fi   fr   gl   il   hr   hu   id   it   ja   kr   ms   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv   th   tr   uk   vi   cn  
24 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 6
1.95 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   ar   ca   cz   dk   de   gr   es   eu   fi   fr   gl   il   hr   hu   id   it   ja   kr   ms   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv   th   tr   uk   vi   cn  
24 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 6
1.77 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   ar   ca   cz   dk   de   gr   es   eu   fi   fr   gl   il   hr   hu   id   it   ja   kr   ms   no   nl   pl   pt   ro   ru   sv   th   tr   uk   vi   cn  
24 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 3
4.65 GB
3840*2160
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
N/A
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by chicdrummer 6 / 10

Good but something was just...off

I'm starting to think no book adaptation should be less than 2 hours long. Especially a slow burn romance. There just wasn't enough time to flesh out their relationship. It felt forced and unearned (even more so because we only got one scene from their collective past to support Jake's undying love.)And why did they age up the actors so far?! Ellie is almost 10 years older than the book character and Luke is almost 20 (!!) years older. It made some of their childish bickering even harder to watch.The side characters were a hoot and well developed (but it came from a book so duh!) Something about the dialogue or maybe the pacing was just off. Maybe another 20-30 mins could have filled it out more.
Reviewed by bmiller59 8 / 10

Delightful & peaceful story

I cannot wait to read this book. At the 1.33 mark I went to Libby and tagged it, there was already a group of people that had a hold on it. I keep wondering how it is going to end.I don't know what drew us to watch it, but what a great decision. My wife would say it was Luke Grimes, yea I get it. What I really liked about this movie, and can't wait to explore it in the book was that in the beginning everyone had their flaws and it looked as though there was going to be way too much stress. All of a sudden I realized how harmoniously they were with each other. Really made me smile.The locale that this was shot was beautiful. The scenes of the group hiking in the meadows and on tree lines was very happy as they hiked in a single file line.I'm glad we found this as it was released only 2 days prior to us seeing it.I can now read the reviews and see what other views of this are. I hate reading reviews prior to seeing a movie. If you are one of those who read the reviews prior to watching a movie and you are reading this...by all means you need to watch this, hopefully you will not be disappointed.
Reviewed by cgvsluis 6 / 10

Based on a book by the same title, I enjoyed this slow burn romance more than I anticipated.

I did find it kind of funny that nature wasn't "pretty" enough, so they had to add in flowers artificially.Ellie Kemper plays the school teacher divorcée Helen, who decides to get out of her comfort zone and go on a wilderness hike to find herself. She goes on an excursion package with a handful of other misfits. Filled with dry humor, this was anything but a sad film. Her brother's best friend Jake shows up, initially clashing with Helen but then finding some common ground.Ellie Kemper's dry delivery was perfect and contrasted nicely with her genuine smile. She had wonderful chemistry with Luke Grimes, who played Jake, and Nico Santos, who played the character Hugh. Luke Grimes was wonderful in this film, warm and steadfast. Nico Santos stole scenes right and left.I had set the bar low for this film and was genuinely surprised that I enjoyed it. There is some great camping humor and a sweet story along with some gorgeous wilderness backdrops. I think true romantics will like this film.
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