Happiness for Beginners (2023) Review

After searching for a light hearted movie, I found Happiness for Beginners. It’s an interesting take on life and self-discovery. Though it’s almost like a cliche eat, pray and love, Happiness for beginners is quite a simple take on it. The story is also much like romcom, quite predictable and ends in a happy ending. Set in the Appalachian rrail, the movie sure is quite a delight to the eye. Its cinematography is pretty stunning though the story and the screenwriting was really minimal. It stars Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes, where Luke Grimes did a good job portraying Jake and Ellie as Helen that makes me think she’s quite a Karen and has that “Karen” aura in her. This movie is also an adaptation of a book with the same title which convinced me that I am keen to put the book on my list.

A 30 something divorcée is an English literature teacher with a considerably “boring” life. She rarely takes challenges and is living her dream, the kind with white picket fence. Until her marriage fell apart which made her want to reset her life. She ended up booking a survival camp in Appalachian Trail which she first thought was truly for “beginners”. During the camp, another person who joined was Jake, her longtime best friend. It was seemingly a coincidence and prompted Helen to ask Jake to pretend that they don’t know each other. Throughout the journey, Helen kept being the slowest one and was earning the speed bump, her hiking nickname. The group consisted of people who were attempting to challenge themselves in a lot of ways. From being strangers, they eventually became friends at the end of the course. Meanwhile Jake eventually confesses his feelings towards Helen that he has been kept hidden for so long.

This movie reminds me so much of Leave No Trace with its mesmerizing shot of nature. There’s a minimal conversation and sometimes when there is, it’s quite witty. Ellie did a good job convincing me that she is quite an insufferable woman that you don’t want to mess with or even be around her. With the haircut and her mannerism, she was indeed, quite a karen and always bad-tempered. It’s a light-hearted movie that you can watch for an hour and that’s about it. Since I know that there’s a book on this movie, I want to see the kind of conversation that it has because the title itself, Happiness for Beginners, was actually promising a lot. I was expecting that it was shown, why but rather the message itself was implied and as viewer, you sort of have to deduce it. This film is fresh from the oven and if you’re looking for something to watch on the weekend and light-hearted, I’d recommend this one. Although when it comes to rating, it’s earning 6 out of 10 in my book.