So, I don’t usually make it a habit of recommending movies, but every once in a while one just has to be talked about. Especially one I’ve never heard of.
One night while glancing through the “Recently Added” on Netflix, I came across Hector and the Search for Happiness. I really only stopped on it because I am a fan of Simon Pegg and after recently watching the last Mission Impossible – I’ve been on a spree of watching his old movies I enjoy (Hot Fuzz, How to Loose Friends and Influence People, The World’s End).
This movie is based on a book with the same title by Francois Lelord and is all about a psychiatrist named Hector who takes an epic journey while trying to discover what makes people happy! It’s a more serious film for actor Simon Pegg, and I really enjoyed him in it. His girlfriend Clara, played by Rosamund Pike, is also quite good in her role and I could have used more interaction with her in the movie. A relationship stunted by emotional barriers is the 3rd primary character of this story.
However, the BIG reason I think everyone should now see this movie is because of the questions that are asked 100x in the film.
“What makes you happy? Would you consider yourself a happy person? Where does happiness come from?”
As he takes an epic journey in search of these answers, he realizes so much about his own personal lack of joy and happiness. It’s a journey that reveals the subjective nature of how people interpret happiness in the tension between life and faith. It also reveals that our primal emotions of SAD, SCARED, and HAPPY can actually all function together when it comes to LOVE.
It’s a beautiful picture of realizing that happiness is NOT necessarily a destination, but what is found in the pursuit of life itself.
So… go watch the movie. Other movies in the same genre have had more success and are better movies overall (Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life, Stranger Than Fiction) but doesn’t really compare to the DIRECT way this story tackles the question of “happiness.”
What does happiness mean to you?
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