Happy Happy

Happy, Happy (2011)

This is a modest film, for sure, and if you take the basic element of it, it's a story told many times. But it's told very well, and it has two extra layers that give it a really odd, pointed humor and pathos (both). You might reduce it all by saying: how Scandinavian. Maybe.

Most of the plot is simple. A sophisticated city couple move to the country to live for awhile. (We are never sure why, and they don't work, but it's more than just a holiday.) The wife (played by the chiseled Danish t.v. actress Maibritt Saerens) is reluctant in the opening scene, but the ground is covered with snow and it seems like a necessary adventure.

They rent a little house from a country couple who live next door, and the most famous star of the movie is this woman, a simple and idealistic kind of woman (Agnes Kittelsen). She must be the reason for the movie, because she is naive to the point of blindness to her situation (or so we are led to think). Her husband is a slightly abusive guy who gets their son on his side in affairs.

The city couple/country couple dynamic is nothing new, and it has some of the familiar expected results, including a genuine mutual admiration between the two women (one appreciating country life, the other admiring urban chic). But a rivalry also is brewing, and some infidelity results. With the nice new complication of a gay element, which I will leave vague and simply say that it happens in a very natural and almost normal way.

This is all pretty good stuff, and the making of a simple but satisfying human drama. The two additional layers change the tone of it all. The first is almost silly you would think, but in little inserts, artificially and comically positioned as markers, is a kind of Greek chorus—played by a Scandinavian barbershop quartet in English. It's hilarious and surreal. And it makes you reflect on the events as theater, not quite as a depiction of real people.

The other layer is tougher to take, and is given brief but critical screen time. The country couple has a boy of their own, and the city couple has an adopted Ethiopian child about the same age. In an apparently innocent way, the white child plays slave master to the black child, who plays slave (willingly, and with no serious physical harm). The dynamic is chilling to a viewer, and only slowly do the parents catch on (partly because they are all absorbed in their own drama). There is a terrific five second resolution to this near the end, by the city woman, and as cruel and crude as it seems, it's perfect and necessary. And it cuts through all the other crap, somehow, too.

By the end you see a kind of fable played out, and it might be a bit simple, but it's sweet and sad and funny enough to work. I liked this more than I thought I would at first.

HAPPY,HAPPY (dir. Anne Sewitsky) The film is an off-beat examination of two failing marriages in a very isolated, wintry, and picturesque area of Norway. An urban professional couple have fled the city with their adopted African son, and they are trying to reestablish their marriage after the wife's infidelity. Their new neighbors are another couple with a young boy, and the husband is a repressed homosexual, and his wife is in denial. This leads to an illicit sexual affair, and the the film documents the couples' dramatic realignment. Several times during the film a 'Greek Chorus' of singers interrupt the drama with Country- Western inflected Negro Spirituals, and both genres are singularly American, and this made me wonder about the director's attitude towards Americans. Is the director asking Norwegian audiences to view the universal problem of sexual infidelity through American eyes? The songs seemed to be selected to suggest 'lost love' or 'longing' which reinforce a major theme of the film, and reminded me of Lindsay Anderson's surrealistic film, O LUCKY MAN, in which Alan Price's combo provided random musical commentary. Another strange or unusual aspect in the film is the treatment of 'Race'. The African child is asked to play a slave by the other young boy. This is rather inexplicable, yet it might be an attempt to demonstrate the child's confusion over his father's sexual identity. This is a thought provoking and strikingly original film, and I highly recommend it.

There are four main characters in Happy, Happy because it is about two couples; however, one of them really shines through and becomes such a pleasure to watch that it really does not matter what happens with the plot or any of the other players, she is just stunning. I am talking about Agnes Kittelsen who plays Kaja. She is almost always smiling, even when there are situations when there is nothing to smile about. She exudes positive energy and cannot help it when her actions either makes someone else around her happy or rubs someone else the wrong way.

Kaja is married to Eirik (Joachim Rafaelsen) and they appear to live in the middle of nowhere Norway. They not only own their own house, but also the one next door which they rent out to people who are usually looking to get away from the city. A city couple from Denmark does exactly that when they abruptly shift from urban to rural. The new couple next door is Sigve (Henrik Rafaelsen) and Elisabeth (Maibritt Saerens). Since there is not much else to do in the immediate locale, the two couples start sharing dinners together and playing games. These games lead to uncomfortable couple comparisons which is never a good thing. Comparing your relationship to someone else's is not the way to end the evening on a high note.

During one game, it emerges that Kaja and Eirik have not had sex in over a year and that Elisabeth has recently cheated on Sigve which was a catalyst in their decision to escape to the countryside. The couples also notice the personality clashes and matches around the dinner table. Kaja and Sigve are naturally extroverted and outwardly positive. Elisabeth and Eirik are much more reserved and while not necessarily secretive, they do not have the impulse to share their feelings around the room. These situations and personalities obviously set up what may lead to adulterous liaisons, secrets, and acrimony. However, this is not a heavy handed drama about adultery and revenge. There are laughs, comedic scenes, and an overall light air around the decisions these couples make in response to one another.

Each couple also has a son, although Sigve and Elisabeth's son is adopted and black. There are scenes between the two boys, who seem to be around seven years old, which do the film no credit and do not fit. Their sequences are only peripheral to the plot and have no bearing on any central themes, which is all the more puzzling why they are even there. Their interactions disrupt the light flow and mood of the movie and should either be completely rewritten or just taken out.

Happy, Happy won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic World Cinema at this year's Sundance Film Festival and is also Norway's official submission for the 2012 Academy Awards. It approaches its characters with maturity and understanding, characteristics true for most Scandinavian films but frequently lacking in American ones. It is also challenging to classify Happy, Happy as just a comedy or a drama. There are not very many jokes or moments to laugh at but there are also very few emotional moments which aim for true drama either; it carves out a distinct middle ground.

I recommend Happy, Happy for those of us who like Scandinavian films and appreciate movies which take their characters seriously. Thank goodness there are no slapstick moments here which would not fit and no downright weepy 'woe is me' segments. Just lose the scenes with the kids and then you would really have a heck of film on your hands.

Well, I'll try to elude subjective views as I lived in Sweden - I know this movie takes place in Norway, but anyone whom has lived in either of these countries would say that they are very similar culturally speaking.

So, the main character is Kaja, a young, vivid women living with her husband and son in a remote place. Everything seems to be perfectly normal, in appearance... until a young couple coming from the city moves in next door.

And then, the "faithful heterosexual family" norm is all falling apart, everybody is trying to get attention from the wrong person and it results VERY funny and critical regarding the so-called egalitarianism of Scandinavian countries.

I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to have a laugh and open its mind.

Kaja is an unrelenting cheerful person. She's a teacher. Her husband Eirick is a jerk. For example, he and their son play a silent-treatment game which they know infuriates her. Couple Elisabeth and Sigve move in next door with their adopted African boy Noa. One night, Sigve brings out a box called The Couples Game. Kaja and Eirick have a tough time with the game. Kaja reveals to Sigve that they haven't had sex for a year. Sigve tells her that Elisabeth cheated on him. Sigve and Kaja start a secret affair.

This indie is a little bit slow at times. Kaja is a great character. The actors are all good. There is some relationship fun. Then there is one too many reveal twist with Eirick. Instead of emotional intensity, it becomes a sudsy endeavor. I can do without that final twist. The humor doesn't always work.