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
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
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