Le Bonheur pour les débutants

I did find it kind of funny that nature wasn't "pretty" enough, so they had to add in flowers artificially.

Ellie Kemper plays the school teacher divorcée Helen, who decides to get out of her comfort zone and go on a wilderness hike to find herself. She goes on an excursion package with a handful of other misfits. Filled with dry humor, this was anything but a sad film. Her brother's best friend Jake shows up, initially clashing with Helen but then finding some common ground.

Ellie Kemper's dry delivery was perfect and contrasted nicely with her genuine smile. She had wonderful chemistry with Luke Grimes, who played Jake, and Nico Santos, who played the character Hugh. Luke Grimes was wonderful in this film, warm and steadfast. Nico Santos stole scenes right and left.

I had set the bar low for this film and was genuinely surprised that I enjoyed it. There is some great camping humor and a sweet story along with some gorgeous wilderness backdrops. I think true romantics will like this film.

Making an interesting rom-com is hard, simply because of how familiar the subject is. Happiness for Beginners doesn't really break new ground, but it's a lighthearted watch that manages to keep you interested. The characters are grounded and realistic, each with their own quirks. The leads keep you absorbed in the story. The side-characters bring their own unique perspectives and motivations. The romance grows slowly and organically, and never feels forced into the narrative. The visuals of the Appalachian trail are beautiful. All of this is done with a light touch that makes the movie easy to watch, and the overall result is something sweet that I think I'll be coming back to.

Took a flyer on this and enjoyed it. Some cute, funny and quirky characters. A plot and dialog that moves the tale along. Absolutely stunning New England fall scenery.

Didn't read the book - didn't even know there war one - so had no basis for comparison.

One note: thought the editing could have been a tad tighter for such an easy going movie. A dozen minutes shorter would have made it even better.

Overall think of this as a Hallmark movie in the woods and you won't be disappointed. A fun date night movie where people find themselves and true love triumphs in the end. Go in with those expectations and.you won't be disappointed.

I'm starting to think no book adaptation should be less than 2 hours long. Especially a slow burn romance. There just wasn't enough time to flesh out their relationship. It felt forced and unearned (even more so because we only got one scene from their collective past to support Jake's undying love.)

And why did they age up the actors so far?! Ellie is almost 10 years older than the book character and Luke is almost 20 (!!) years older. It made some of their childish bickering even harder to watch.

The side characters were a hoot and well developed (but it came from a book so duh!) Something about the dialogue or maybe the pacing was just off. Maybe another 20-30 mins could have filled it out more.

I cannot wait to read this book. At the 1.33 mark I went to Libby and tagged it, there was already a group of people that had a hold on it. I keep wondering how it is going to end.

I don't know what drew us to watch it, but what a great decision. My wife would say it was Luke Grimes, yea I get it. What I really liked about this movie, and can't wait to explore it in the book was that in the beginning everyone had their flaws and it looked as though there was going to be way too much stress. All of a sudden I realized how harmoniously they were with each other. Really made me smile.

The locale that this was shot was beautiful. The scenes of the group hiking in the meadows and on tree lines was very happy as they hiked in a single file line.

I'm glad we found this as it was released only 2 days prior to us seeing it.

I can now read the reviews and see what other views of this are. I hate reading reviews prior to seeing a movie. If you are one of those who read the reviews prior to watching a movie and you are reading this...by all means you need to watch this, hopefully you will not be disappointed.