Vicky Wight’s “Happiness for Beginners” asks a question that it answers with more authority than just about any other film I’ve ever seen: Can something still be considered a Hallmark movie if it was made by Netflix? Legally, not so much. In every other sense, however, there’s no longer even a shred of doubt.
A flat and glossy film about a newly divorced woman who decides to walk the pain away on the Appalachian Trail (a two-week excursion that finds her tripping over tree trunks and falling for a hunky ex-doctor who looks like the human manifestation of a Home Depot), this veritable “Eat, Pray, Hike” leaves no trace of originality or dramatic consequence. The advantages it has over the likes of “We Wish You a Married Christmas” and “Royally Ever After” are twofold: A likable cast, and dignified source material.
“Happiness for Beginners” is the second movie that Wight has adapted from a Katherine Center novel, and it’s safe to say that she understands the assignment: Ease the throttle on detailed character work and go all in on pumpkin-spiced vibes. Flannel vests, crisp autumnal montages, Airbnb-worthy aphorisms… whatever it takes to keep things moving along.
If this movie is insufficiently self-possessed to transcend its nature as streaming content and become something more than the sum of its parts, Wight still ensures that each of those parts contribute to a cumulative sense of coziness — a big plus in a film that functions more like a blanket.
Wight’s actors seem to have gotten the same memo, Ellie Kemper most of all. Playing against type as as a downtrodden English teacher whose ultimate goal is essentially to become a more traditional Ellie Kemper character, the bright-eyed “Bridesmaids” star finds a careful balance between strength and surrender, her performance hinting at the sort of layered humanity that movies like this permit you to ignore. We first meet Helen as she’s sitting alone on a couch in the middle of a party and re-reading her goals for her upcoming hike (“Number three: rise from my own ashes like a damn phoenix”). It’s basically the most single that anyone has ever been.
Of course, we know she’s not going to stay that way for long.
All it takes is a quick negging from her younger brother’s long-time best friend Jake (Luke Grimes, sporting every bit of his “Yellowstone” scruff), who suplexes Helen from the top rope with an errant “You used to be so much fun,” and it’s obvious that the love of her life is standing right in front of her. It’s obvious to us, anyway. Helen, on the other hand, isn’t quite so quick on the uptake; after years of listening to this guy tell her that her ex-husband wasn’t good enough, she doesn’t even bat an eye when Jake shows up all stalker-like on the secret hiking trip she planned in the hopes of starting over from scratch. Maybe Helen is just too focused on her history of losing people to notice that scruffy-looking “Bachelor” rejects tend to follow her like a bad case of trench foot (the threat of which is mentioned by the hiking tour’s amusingly aggro leader every five minutes or so).
Helen isn’t much of a nature person, and Jake is doomed to struggle in the woods with problems of his own (brace for a discordantly intense third-act reveal this movie carries with all the grace of a bowling ball in a tote bag), but the rest of their group is in much the same boat — everyone has come to challenge themselves.
These characters are one-note to the core, with the possible exception of the wood-phobic weirdo (Gus Birney) who can’t stop singing “Greensleeves,” but they all benefit from a movie that’s more interested in levity than laughs. “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Nico Santos adds a fun wrinkle to the “gay best friend” routine as a middle-aged man who knows he’s probably never going to see any of these people again, Shayvawn Webster adds some much-needed fizz as a bubbly rival for Jake’s affections, while Julia Shiplett over-delivers as the most sketch-like member of the crew: A girl who’s really, really bad at sticking to her vow of silence. Oh, Blythe Danner even has a little cameo as the kooky grandma who raised Helen and her brother after some very serious shit went down when they were kids.
How do such broad caricatures square with a movie that hinges on the memory of a miscarriage, tossed-off childhood trauma, and a heroine who’s determined to stop breaking the most important promises she makes to herself? They don’t, really, but it’s not as if “Happiness for Beginners” is particularly hung up on any of its more serious concerns. Too light on its feet to schlep around Helen’s baggage, but also too sincere about her wishy-washy spiritual growth to embrace its comic potential, Wight’s film top priority is to be as pleasant as possible at all times, even as its characters are put through the “hiking for beginners” class from hell.
“Life takes a toll,” someone observes in a line of dialogue that epitomizes the script’s “you know what I’m talking about” approach to specificity, but this movie is determined not to. After all, there’s nothing more reassuring than a story about someone who goes the wrong way at every fork in the road, only to wind up exactly where they belong in the end.
Grade: C
“Happiness for Beginners” will be available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, July 28.
