Happy, Happy
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 17, 2011
Kittelsen is a funny, expansive actress, and director Anne Sewitsky manages the sad-comic tonal shifts with emotional accuracy. Read full review
80
Total FilmJosh WinningNov 18, 2012
The ensuing drama is typically Scandinavian in the best way possible – the setting's beautiful, the tensions slow-burning. Meanwhile, musical interludes courtesy of a barbershop quartet lend a playful undertone. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoOct 13, 2011
The curdled Norwegian comedy-drama Happy, Happy, which dissects a pair of poisoned marriages, is sometimes heavy-handed (like its title) but has much to recommend it. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 12, 2011
Winner of Sundance's grand jury prize for world cinema, Happy, Happy is a very strange film. Yet I was happy to be watching. It is short and intense enough that it always seems on track, even if the train goes nowhere. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurraySep 14, 2011
The characters remain governed by what they've been told about themselves for years - that they're ugly, devious, mean, low-class, or silly - until a fresh set of eyes changes what they see in the mirror. Knowing this mutual moment of stark self-awareness is coming doesn't make its arrival any less powerful. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 15, 2011
At times, Happy, Happy is cutting comedy at its brutal best; at times, it slips on the black ice. Still, the love of life is exuberant, the pain exquisite. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBenjamin MercerSep 13, 2011
The questionable black-historical shorthand detracts from what is otherwise a well-performed and fitfully amusing film. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis HarveySep 13, 2011
Picture ultimately pulls off a fairly ambitious narrative agenda with a wrap both credible and crowdpleasing. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweSep 13, 2011
If it weren't so good-natured overall, Anne Sewitsky's feature debut Happy, Happy might seem entirely implausible, even for a comedy. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 7, 2011
Happy, Happy has the makings of a Norwegian "Ice Storm," but it goes out with a whimper. Read full review
60
The GuardianMike McCahillNov 18, 2012
Like Kaja (Agnes Kittelsen), the wide-eyed Madame Bovary at its heart, Happy, Happy starts out cartoonish and ends up oddly endearing. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesOct 13, 2011
Director Anne Sewitsky aims for quirky humanism along the lines of Finland's Aki Kaurismaki; she's helped along considerably by Kittelsen's sunny performance, though the film crosses over into Scandinavian kitsch with a series of country-swing interludes sung a capella by a male quartet. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 15, 2011
In her casually daring - and mostly endearing - debut feature, the Norwegian director Anne Sewitsky mixes and purposely mismatches light and dark moods to tell the story of a rural wife and mother looking for happiness in the wrong places, and finally in the right one. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisSep 22, 2011
The movie attempts to both explain everything away and pat itself (and Norway) on the back once we see Noa watching President Obama deliver his Nobel Prize speech. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 15, 2011
Sets out to puncture the clichéd image of Scandinavians as rosy-cheeked choristers bonded in communal togetherness. But its subversive intentions are ultimately undercut by its lack of nerve, along with a lurking sentimentality. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 12, 2011
The filmmaker looks to American modes of visual and aural expression to give Happy, Happy its soul, but all her fetish accomplishes is depersonalizing her story, making a sitcom of her character's lives. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearSep 13, 2011
Throw in some quirky interludes of a Norwegian quartet singing old American spirituals every so often, and you've got something that's truly messy, messy. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 23, 2011
First-time director Anne Sewitsky may intend Happy, Happy as a Chekhovian chamber piece or romantic bagatelle, but her smugness about racism - and her glib symbolic resolution of the conflicts she raises - suggests an ambition that far outstrips her ability, at least for now. Read full review
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