Happiness for Beginners
As the movie opens, we see Helen (played by Ellie Kemper) sitting alone at a party. People are talking, drinking, laughing, dancing around her and she doesn’t seem to see any of them; they don’t seem to see her. She takes out a piece of paper and reads it again. Her goals for an upcoming hiking trip. Get closer with nature. Rise from my own ashes like the (expletive) phoenix I am Get one (expletive) certificate.
The host of this party is Helen’s brother Duncan (a sweetly lovable Alexander Koch), and she’s only here so she can give him her keys because he’s going to house sit for her. But he’s gone off with his girlfriend, so she gives them to Duncan’s best friend Jake (Luke Grimes of “Yellowstone”) instead. He asks her to stay “You used to be so much fun.”
“I’m like so much fun you wouldn’t even be able to comprehend,” she snaps back. We don’t need to wait until she hands Duncan a laminated list of instructions for the house sit later in the night to know that what she can’t comprehend right now is how not fun she has become.
The ashes Helen wants to rise from are the divorce, and the unhappiness that led there. But you don’t have to watch many movies at all to guess that this trip will teach her about some other ashes, further behind, or that when leader Beckett says that this hike 81 miles on the Appalachian Trail through Connecticut and New York will be “daunting but beautiful,” he could also just be talking about life itself, and all its challenges and opportunities.
You will probably also guess where this is going when one of Duncan’s friends named Jake shows up as one of the hikers too, they pretend not to have met before because they don’t want to have the complicated conversations. It’s like a trail that you know where it ends up because it’s mapped out in front of you, but there’s enough to enjoy along the way.
And there is plenty here to enjoy, including cinematographer Daniel Vecchione’s postcard-pretty scenery of New England fall colors, some poppy needle drops and a beautiful Pablo Neruda poem. “All more than we seem to be,” one character says; each of them has an opportunity to surprise us and themselves. Shayvawn Webster has a warm and positive energy as the relentlessly upbeat Windy, who has maybe my favorite moment in this whole movie that speaks to its title. And Gus Birney might have the most surprising revelation here as Kaylee, who starts off pretty ditsy, even Beckett, the barely older than a Boy Scout hike leader, shows us another side. The pre credit sequence is a funny montage of his most frequent comment. Blythe Danner is always a treasure and pure delight here as Helen’s grandmother.
The core of the story is Kemper’s Helen, and she plays this part perfectly. Helen is one of the less sunny characters that Kemper has portrayed, and it allows her to show more nuance, depth, and complication than usual. Her inherent shine remains even when (seemingly) wearing no makeup on the trail scenes. She also has a monologue a childhood memory that requires her to display many different emotions while recounting what happened before and after an event of great loss in her life. What really gets me about this moment is how for just a second there’s lightness again as she remembers everything from “before,” followed by immense sadness, shame, anger, years spent repressing these images into different compartments until now they’ve all come tumbling out together.
Grimes character isn’t as flashy think Ken to Barbie. It won’t surprise anyone when he does his big reveal at some point during the show or movie or whatever it is we’re talking about here today but until then, anyway? He brings such dry witfulness with him as Jake that we can tell right away how much he loves Helen long before she realizes herself, though honestly? By now I’d say it’s high time she caught on already.
Vicky Wight wrote directed this adaptation based off Katherine Center’s bestseller following their successful partnership behind “The Lost Husband.” While keeping things bright throughout, there are also moments where silence speaks volumes too whether inspiring someone sitting next to you watch The Appalachian Trail on YouTube later tonight or reminding them (and yourself) that gratitude might just be step one towards paradise regained for beginners after all.
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