“Are you happy?” “You can’t just come out with a question like that, you have to build up to it.”
Hector and The Search For Happiness is a globe-trotting, stereotype-embracing affair. Frustrated psychiatrist Hector (Simon Pegg) embarks on an Eat Pray Love-style journey to unlock the secrets of happiness. In Asia, he discovers beautiful women make him happy – but at a cost. In Africa, native dancing seems to be the answer – until corruption and kidnapping interrupt the Benetton-ad bliss.
It’s the smaller interactions that create the biggest impact in Peter Chelsom’s adaptation of Francois Lelord’s novel. The above quote, from a conversation between Pegg and girlfriend Rosamund Pike, makes a lovely observation about our skewed relationship with happiness. We’re obsessed with keeping up appearances – but asked to consider whether we’re genuinely happy beyond our Instagram-able sushi and cocktails, we descend into panic. Are we? What does is mean if we’re not?
Hector visits erstwhile love Toni Collette in the hope of rekindling an old flame and is forced to face the reality that his fantasies are keeping him from being happy. While Chelsom occasionally veers into Chicken Soup for the Oprah Fan’s Soul territory (complete with whimsical animations of Hector’s journaling) Pegg’s nuanced performance grounds the film. This may not be happiness, but it’s easy watching.