Hector and the Search for Happiness

You would expect that a feelgood film with a title such as Hector and the Search for Happiness would result in a clichéd and totally overdone mess of a story, but Peter Chelsom's film manages to pull it off, thanks by-and-large, to a vivacious performance from Simon Pegg.

Hector (Simon Pegg) is a psychologist, troubled by the fact that he is offering advice to his patients about how to live life, without having truly experienced it himself. After somewhat of a mental breakdown, Hector decides to go on a trip, exploring the world and researching what it means to be happy. He doesn't know where he's going, or when he'll return, yet he asks his long-term girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike), to wait for him.

Armed with a blank notebook from Clara, and all the equipment he could possibly need, Hector travels to a variety of places including China and Africa, encountering very different people, from mothers, to prostitutes, to monks, to criminals, and asks them about what they consider happiness to be, and what personally makes them happy.

Surprisingly, the clichés that you would normally expect from this sort of film weren't particularly present in Hector, though as he travels through Asia and Africa there are definitely some strong stereotypes being played upon. I also found some elements of the plot rather obscure in meaning at times, but overall, there's plenty of funny and enjoyable moments to keep you interested. These 'moments' are great on their own but unfortunately, they don't work cohesively in the overall narrative and rather rely on the typical ending montage to link them all together.

Simon Pegg brings plenty of spirit to the part of Hector, and was certainly charismatic enough to push the film beyond the capabilities of the script. Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer were both well cast, but underused - though Plummer's small role is possibly the most interesting part of the movie - and it was good to see Jean Reno as a total badass again. However, Rosamund Pike, fresh off the heels of her fantastic performance in Gone Girl didn't bring much to the screen for me, mainly thanks to the nagging nature of her inherently uninteresting character, though this certainly isn't the worst film that she's appeared in...*cough* Die Another Day *cough*.

After the dull, grey world of Hector as a psychologist moves aside for his world travel adventures, the screen opens up to a brightly coloured series of landscape shots that highlight the outlandish experiences of his trip. It's really quite a beautiful movie, bolstered by some great acting and enjoyable scenes, unfortunately though it does succumb to a few stereotypes, and lacks a bit of substance overall.