Hector and the Search for Happiness and maybe a little of my own...

My friend and I went and saw Hector and the Search for Happiness last night.  I had seen this trailer a while back and was super excited about seeing it.  Unfortunately the trailer was nothing like what I was expecting from the movie.  

Honestly I don’t get to movies very much anymore in the theater for many reasons.  Time, money, and the fact that so many are shot in a shaky style now and intensified on a big screen makes it worse.  Usually I can tell if a movie is shot like this by the trailer, but there are almost always scenes that are shot like this and I have to look away.  So it’s got to be a movie that really piques my interest to get my ass into a theater now a days.

*Spoilers*

The first problem was I may have just gone in with too high of expectations.   

Let’s start with the good – 

The acting was fantastic.  I mean it’s a stellar cast!  Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Christopher Plummer (just loved his monologue), Toni Colette and Jean Reno are all phenomenal actors and none of them disappoint in this movie.  I did enjoy the concept – a psychiatrist realizes he’s not helping his patients and heads out on a quest to find the true meaning of happiness.  He brings this great little journal his girlfriend makes him and when something sticks out they do a fun scrawl it across the screen sort of thing.  Dug it.  Very indie.  Very cool.  And of course there were lovely quotes but most of them were predictable.  The humor filtered throughout the movie was also fantastic.  A dark humor usually but I loved it and found myself laughing out loud more than a few times.

One issue I had, was it was hard to relate to the main character.  He’s a guy with money, who is a successful doctor, great girlfriend and travels to exotic places.  It’s in the same vain as Eat, Pray, Love.  Which I did enjoy but kind of felt the same as I did about this flick.  It was also a bummer that the other characters you didn’t have a chance to really know.  I mean all the above actors I named I loved and would have really liked to know more about their lives.  We just got snippets and I felt jipped.  There was also a scene where Simon Pegg gets kidnapped that seemed a little far-fetched and over the top.  Like they were trying too hard to get an emotional reaction out of the audience.

The other thing that really irked me was the whole damn message at the end was pretty much the main character realizing he really did indeed love his lady and wanted to be with her.  So – just another romantic movie pretty much.  The “happiness” stuff they touched on was so brief and weird.  A millionaire who “buys happiness”, the man who finally came out and now helps folks in Africa, the poor sick woman trying to get to her sister before she dies, hell even the monk had such a brief scene and we didn’t really get to appreciate the beauty of where that story could have gone.  It was all typical/predictable stuff to me.  All those stories felt rushed.  Nothing hit me or struck me emotionally.  

I’m wondering if I should have read the book first.  I actually didn’t realize it was a book dammit!  I read Eat, Pray, Love and did really love it.  Even though I couldn’t necessarily relate to the main character because she had the money to up and travel to three places to find her happiness and get inspired, I still enjoyed the way she wrote.  I enjoyed the frustrations she had, the humor with how she dealt with them.  She made the book totally accessible to someone not in her same financial situation say.  When the movie came out I knew it wouldn’t be as great as the book (They never are) but it was cute.  I enjoyed it.  I actually felt a bit more inspired by that then I did for Hector and the Search for Happiness.  I don’t know if that’s due to the fact that I read the book 1^st or that I just had a different expectation of Hector...

Now, with that said – I did enjoy the movie.  I don’t want anyone to think this movie was bad at all.  I just wish it was advertised more as a relationship-y movie rather than a movie that you think is going to be inspirational.  I mean call it what it is. The man goes off to find what makes him happy - and oh big surprise - it's his girlfriend.

I’m on an interesting journey in my own life right now trying to see where it takes me with this new found outlook on life.  I’m appreciating the journey more for sure.  I’m finding I’m happier with myself than I ever have been which makes me question whether I’ll ever end up in a relationship at all.  This for the 1^st time in my entire life does not make me sad.  It’s weird to write here, since I went back and read some of my older blogs and pretty recently as well,  and this is a totally different feeling but that’s the way it goes I suppose.  We change and ride the flow of life.  See where it takes us.  Don’t expect anything.  I’m enjoying my search.  I don’t want say my search for happiness because I am just that – happy.  But I’m enjoying searching what makes me even more happier, more compassionate to others, more kind, more present, just more.

I used to make “Happy Lists” back in the early blogging days trying to counter my usual unhappy rants so I thought I’d make a current one for where I am now. 

Happy List for almost the end of 2014:

·         Really good sushi

·         Really good wine

·         Napa

·         Hitting that point in meditation where I surprise myself smiling

·         Spending time with my bestie and her daughter

·         Exercise

·         Adorable internet memes

·         Hilarious internet memes

·         Being adored by Lila & Henri

·         Making my boss laugh so hard she cries

·         Starting work on a new creative project

·         Sunny pool floats

·         Seeing my cousins

·         Lunches with Dad

·         Finding new music

·         Sending happy gifts

·         Making someone smile

·         Getting caught up in music

·         Conquering nemesis obstacles

·         Making new friends

·         Halloween Events

·         Purr filled nuzzles from my girls

·         Waking up from a good night’s sleep

I could actually go on and on for another page or too!

This list sure comes so much easier than it used to.

I am a lucky girl.