Welcome to Happiness

(3) comments

• 
  mockfilmsblogMay 20, 2016Reply

  An sweetly odd tale.

  So many of life’s lessons can be attributed to children’s literature.
  Authors from Dr. Seuss to Shel Silverstein shaped the way young minds
  perceived the world and prepared them for what lie ahead. Welcome To
  Happiness, the debut film from writer/director Oliver Thompson, spins a
  fanatical tale in a similar vein. Aimed at the grown-ups we’ve ripened
  into, this clever comedy draws upon the ”whys” we inevitably ask
  ourselves as we press on through to adulthood.

  Dropping the viewer directly into the world he built, Thomson keeps a
  close rein on the goings on and rules set forth by his script, only
  answering so much before adding on more mysteries. The opening scene
  sets the tone of the film, quirky and playful yet not lacking real raw
  emotion…

• 
  subxerogravityMay 25, 2016Reply

  This movie was so stellar, just one of the best narrative movies ever.

  It was a strangle inventive ride, and at the end I was moved and felt
  like I learned something.

  Welcome to Happiness is about a children’s book writer who lives in an
  interesting apartment. Once in a while, his 1990s printer would go off
  and a stranger would knock on his door. He would ask the strangers
  three questions from the printout and if they answered correctly he
  would lead them to happiness, which the door to happens to be in his
  bedroom closet, but after 5 years when this guy discovers that
  happiness is a place in which you can change the one big regret in your
  life, he becomes disgruntled with the fact that he wasn’t given the
  opportunity to change his one regret.

  The movie puts me on a very emotional ride. I relate to the lead
  character Woody, played by Kyle Gallner. It was a great experience.
  Kinda like the Matrix, but more down to Earth without the Sci-fi and
  the Kung fu. It’s not a coincidence that Woody is a Children’s book
  Arthur as the movie dishes out the life lesson it that same poise, only
  it’s for adults.

  It was a brilliant narrative from beginning to end. The first act I was
  digging but then it got to a point where I did not like the message the
  movie was generating, then kaboom! The whole thing was laid out in
  front of me and I felt it. I can’t remember when the last time a movie
  blew my mind like that.

  Plus Keegan-Michael Key is so amusing in his role. This guy is just so
  entertaining without even trying.

  Recommend trying this movie out. I’m not really the type to be
  enlighten, but It did spark something in me.

• 
  Stu Robinson ([email protected])July 17, 2016Reply

  One’s Own Outlook Will Color ‘Welcome to Happiness

  I didn’t attend the Phoenix Film Festival screening of Welcome to
  Happiness for the subject matter. I went because the cast includes two
  of my favorite actresses: Olivia Thirlby (The Wackness, Juno and The
  Wedding Ringer) and Molly C. Quinn, the daughter on ABC’s Castle.

  Then there was the reference in the synopsis to ”a mysterious door in
  his closet that only allows certain people to enter.” For me, that
  evoked images of Being John Malkovich.

  So I really didn’t see it coming when the film turned out to address a
  question with which I’ve struggled most of my life: Just what is
  ”happiness”? See, I’m one of those folks who has trouble simply ”being”
  in the moment; there always seems to be something more out there. It’s
  an inability to be confident and satisfied in myself, my
  accomplishments, my health, my relationships and whatnot.

  A Curious Setting

  That doesn’t seem to be a problem, at least initially, for Woody Ward
  (Kyle Gallner from American Sniper), who lives in an unusual apartment
  the walls of which are adorned with curious murals.

  Residence in the unit comes with a responsibility. Periodically, the
  silence is shattered by the clattering of a 1980s-era printer in the
  hallway – followed quickly by a stranger knocking on the door. Woody
  must verify the visitor’s identity with information from the printer,
  guide him or her into the closet with the mysterious door and then
  leave the person to await admittance. Like the old Black Flag Roach
  Motel ads, guests check in but they don’t check out.

  Woody has lived there for years and hasn’t seemed to mind the ritual,
  but there are signs that it’s starting to wear thin:

  — He tells one guest, Leah, that not everybody (i.e., him) gets to
  pass through the door. — Following a meet cute with neighbor Trudy
  (Thirlby) at the mailbox, their initial date is interrupted by the
  printer and someone at the door. — He encounters Leah on the street –
  the first time he’s ever seen someone again after he or she went
  through the door – and she intimates that whatever is on the other side
  offers the chance to right some wrong in the past. This particularly
  rankles Woody, whose parents were killed by a drunk driver.

  Despite the awkward ending to the first date, Trudy is smitten by
  Woody’s ingenuousness and the fact that he makes his living writing
  children’s books. But it isn’t happily ever after; Woody has writer’s
  block and is under pressure from his agent, Priscilla (Paget Brewster
  from TV’s Criminal Minds).

  Then there is his growing resentment that he somehow isn’t worthy of
  passing through the door. It comes to a head when Woody tells Trudy and
  her friend Farrah (Chauntal Lewis) about the door. Determined to prove
  it in the face of their skepticism, he badgers Farrah, who had lost a
  hand in a car accident, into trying the door in the hope she might be
  able to alter the past. But as we’ve seen with Woody himself, he
  doesn’t get to decide who passes through. His misbegotten effort simply
  alienates Trudy and Farrah.

  The Other Side

  Unlike Woody, the audience gets to see life on both sides of the door.

  Pulling the strings on the other, Oz-like side is the eccentric Proctor
  (Keegan-Michael Key of Key and Peele), helped by his quirky assistant,
  Lillian (Quinn). This side is supposed to be ”happiness,” a surreal
  setting of brightly colored buildings amid landscape that looks a lot
  like the Arizona desert. From there, Proctor and Lillian engineer a
  subplot in which they manipulate two characters with a dark connection
  from the past.

  The only character who acts in both worlds is Woody’s landlord, Moses
  (Nick Offerman from Parks and Recreation), who is privy to the
  apartment’s special qualities. Moses’ presence is measured and calming,
  compared with Offerman’s comedy roles.

  Quinn, too, plays against her TV persona. Colorful and quirky, yet
  almost hypnotic in her movements, Lillian is the opposite of Alexis on
  Castle.

  Welcome to Happiness offers an interesting take on what it means to be
  worthy. It also tries to illustrate happiness, but falls short. Behind
  all of the color and kookiness are the usual clichés about the grass
  always being greener on the other side and appreciating your life as it
  is.

  That said, the film’s approach to those issues is original and creative
  – which works because the acting is superb. The characters of Woody,
  Lillian and Proctor (as well as the two portrayed in the subplot by
  Josh Brener of TV’s Silicon Valley and Brendan Sexton III of The
  Killing) are richly drawn, and the ways in which the actors bring them
  to life a key to capturing the audience. It wasn’t surprising, then,
  that Welcome to Happiness won Phoenix Film Festival’s award for Best
  Acting Ensemble.

  What doesn’t work is a sharp New Age, Kumbayba-type turn near the end.
  What to that point is a nuanced portrayal of individuals runs smack
  into a big group of people embracing in unison some sort of common
  belief in solidarity against the real world – represented moments
  earlier by Trudy and Priscilla, clad in black, trying to yank Woody
  back to his reality. It just doesn’t fit.

  Still, Welcome to Happiness offers many of the qualities integral to an
  independent film that seeks to avoid the tropes of the genre.

  ###

  Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social
  media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.