There’s a point where a movie can be just a little too indy and a little too cute for it’s own good. Happythankyoumoreplease skates right up to that line but never crosses it, resulting in an experience that was actually rather enjoyable. Like a more serious episode of When I Met Your Mother with artsy photography, considerably better music, and none of that bullshit where they pretend to be a comedy but kill off someone’s dad when the ideas start to run dry. Also Ted kidnaps a kid…
In addition to being the bane of spellcheckers, the film Happythankyoumoreplease was written/directed, and starred in by Josh Radnor. An actor familiar to many as the character Ted who each week tells horribly inappropriate tales to his children on the TV’s show How I Met Your Mother. In point of fact other thant it being the same actor playing men of the same life stage, the film bears little resemblance to the TV show. Other than both have something to with friendship, love, and growing up. The comparison is mostly just a cheap way to start – but seriously, why did they have to kill off Marshall’s dad?!?
Anyhoo…
Josh Radnor plays Sam, a struggling writer living in NYC. As the film begins, he awakes after a one night stand and rushes off to a meeting with a potential publisher. We quickly learn all we need to know about Sam, as his best friend Annie (Malin Akerman) leaves him a voice message on his anachronistic answering machine. So flustered is Sam that he accidentally commits the New Yorker amateur mistake of trying to help a young boy who appears lost on the subway. For his trouble, he of course screws up the interview-like meeting and ends up taking the kid home with him. Not in a creepy way – except for the kidnapping bit. But it’s OK, because Rasheen (Michael Algieri) is in a foster care situation he doesn’t like. Which might be forgivable, but Sam doesn’t really go out of his way to report any of this to the authorities, just allowing Rasheen to live with him. In exchange, Rasheen gives Sam the friendship, love, and purpose he needs, and helps him pickup smoking hot chicks like Mississippi (Kate Mara). Meanwhile, in parallel, we follow along with two sets of friends, a couple faced with the decision to leave NYC for (gasp) LA, and Annie, who in addition to suffering from baldness, has dramatically bad taste in me.
Now, I know you may be thinking – “Does he mean it’s so bad it’s good?” – because as I re-read that description, it sounds like a train wreck. But I have to say that as incredibly stupid as some of the character’s actions are, and as much as it sounds like a textbook “they’re going to learn the lessons of loving and being real adults” sap-fest, somehow it all gelled for me.
Maybe it’s Radnor who really is very likable even while acting like a dumb kid in a man’s body. Maybe it’s the natural performances and chemistry of the main characters combined with the low-key photography. Perhaps it’s just that the right music (which is very well-matched to the film) makes anything palatable. But at the end of the day, I don’t really care as I found it a pleasant escapist bit of cinema.
Plus, now that I watched something small and personal-feeling this week, I can feel no guilt about heading out to see Sucker Punch this weekend. Not that I would anyway…