Review of Another Happy Day (2011) by Jeremyp — 27 Aug 2012

This is a very depressing movie about a family reunion at a wedding. At the outset let me tell you that the only sympathetic character in it is a borderline who cuts herself, and she is sympathetic only because we hear such awful things about her before meeting her we are pleasantly surprised to see her presented as the most stable in the family. As a Family Therapist I can tell you this movie would make a great teaching tool. Every kind of crazy making behavior is presented. There are predators galore in many guises, and quite a few victims. Ellen Barkin pulls off a bravura performance as a panicked, put upon mother whose brood consists of the above mentioned borderline and an addicted, self centered, car crash of a son. She gets no help from an empty space of a husband (played blithely by "The Walking Dead's" Jeffrey DeMunn), and plenty of interference from her mother (Ellen Burstyn) a cold disinterested matriarch concerned with her looming widowhood, and her ex husbands wife (Demi Moore) who insists on taking all the credit for raising Barkin's son to perfection., not to mention two sadists masquerading as sisters.

I credit the movie for not shoving our nose too deep into psychoanalysis and finger pointing. After seeing this be sure to call your relatives and take a moment to love them.