Happy Tears

2009
R
1h 32m

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

1.6K

YOUR RATING

Jayne and Laura are about to take on the first man they just might not be able to handle: their seventy-something-year-old father Joe. Dutiful daughters returning to the house they grew up in, Jayne and Laura are forced to take a closer look at their own not-so-perfect lives while dodging childhood memories. Laura suspects that Joe needs full-time care, but Jayne hopes that their father's condition isn't that serious. Joe is still singing and playing his old guitar, and the lively widower even has a new "ladyfriend," shameless and sassy Shelly. But as the visible moments of their father's impending senility increase, so do the dysfunctional family dynamics. Tensions flare as the close sisters must also juggle their own very different lives - Laura's busy schedule as an environmentalist and mother of two small children, and Jayne, desperate to finally have a baby with her workaholic art-dealing husband Jackson. Their adventures back home are not without magic, mischief and mayhem, and even a search for buried treasure in the backyard! Any tears that Jayne and Laura might shed will be happy ones.

Play trailer2:18

9 Videos

75 Photos

Comedy Drama

Two sisters return home to deal with their ailing father, only to face some surprising situations.Two sisters return home to deal with their ailing father, only to face some surprising situations.Two sisters return home to deal with their ailing father, only to face some surprising situations.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

1.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Driver
(as Pete Patrikios)

T. Ryder Smith

Shoe Salesman

Christian Camargo

Jackson

Victor Slezak

Eli Bell

Melissa Ticen

Stewardess

Julianna Conforti

Young Jayne

Jacquelyn Conforti

Young Jayne

Alyssa Klein

Young Laura

David L. King

Dr. Sims
(as David King)

Aldous Davidson

Waiter

Richard Barlow

Mitch
(as Rich Barlow)

Billy Magnussen

Susan Blommaert

Mallory

Anderson Folsom

Young Ray
(as Anderson Golsom)

Director
- Mitchell Lichtenstein
Writer
- Mitchell Lichtenstein
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Choices

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Film debut of Billy Magnuessen.

Goofs
The plane landing in Pittsburgh is clearly not in Pittsburgh. In the landing scene there is a large body of water and a ship visible. There's no body of water within sight of PIT.

Connections
Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Shutter Island/The Ghost Writer/Happy Tears (2010)

Soundtracks
I'm A King Bee
Written by Slim Harpo
Performed by Slim Harpo
Published by Embassy Music Corporation (BMI)
Courtesy of Hip-O Records
Under License from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews10

Featured review

5/10

Kinda "chick flick", kinda surprising

"Happy Tears" is sort of odd: It draws you in, and you comfortably watch the whole thing. Then, after it ends, you realize it suffers from "chick flick" syndrome, almost as bad as the worst of the genre.

It really has poor story structure. It seems to be moving along, but really it's just floating along on a stream of trenchant dialog and beautiful graphics and editing, and some great acting. But it ends on a happy-go-lucky, that seems rather undeserved and subsequently trite. All kinds of dramatic elements get dropped, and others enter without decent leading development.

In short, if you like narrative integrity, skip it.