Happiness starts very well, in that it sets up its characters solidly, and ends really, really, really bad because it makes no point whatsoever. What's even worse is that it tries to trick you into thinking that it's a movie "to be taken seriously" because everybody's a sex addict and everybody's miserable and everybody throws up. In case you didn't get it: the title "Happiness" is used for its opposite meaning. What saves this pretentious movie from is essentially its great cast, especially that little boy whose father is a pedophile. He essentially played an un- pitchable child role. What an impressive and mature performance!
The first forty minutes or so are very interesting in terms of character evolution, but there's no use for you to look at your watch, because these are only forty minutes out of one hundred and forty minutes worth of very, very, very pointless controversy wrapped in very, very, very unaesthetic cinematography. Long story short, this is a movie where very promising satire and sarcasm is dumped for explicit material. As a matter of fact, everything that the characters do seems to be for shock value. The grandfather who pours tons of salt on his plate despite his doctor's recommendations (no need to shoot further scenes to elaborate of course). The neighbour who phone-harrasses women and ends up drunk and pukes everywhere. The little boy who, after six laborious months, finally shoots his cum, has his dog eat it and joyfully tells his entire family that he had an orgasm. Please.
Yes, a scene like the one where a father suggests demonstrating masturbation to his son will surprise you, shock you, make you smile, make you laugh, offend you, make you applaud the writer for his unapologetic manners, but once you're past the effect, Happiness will leave no room for you to reflect in any way, for the simple reason that there's nothing to reflect about since everything's done for the sake of spontaneous disgust and/or offence. If you want good sarcasm, taboo topics and impeccable cinematography, check out "Sitcom" by François Ozon, where a mother decides to sleep with her gay son to "cure" him from his homosexuality. It has an irresistibly witty and sarcastic dialogue, an asset that "Happiness" crucially lacks. When you want to be honest with people with topics as delicate as pedophilia, you need something to counter-balance it. Pasolini shot the most shocking sexual scenes in history but he had the most poetic cinematography and sound track to back it up with! It is one thing to push people's buttons to make them reflect on something and a totally different thing to go for shock value. Happiness is not the former.
The first forty minutes or so are very interesting in terms of character evolution, but there's no use for you to look at your watch, because these are only forty minutes out of one hundred and forty minutes worth of very, very, very pointless controversy wrapped in very, very, very unaesthetic cinematography. Long story short, this is a movie where very promising satire and sarcasm is dumped for explicit material. As a matter of fact, everything that the characters do seems to be for shock value. The grandfather who pours tons of salt on his plate despite his doctor's recommendations (no need to shoot further scenes to elaborate of course). The neighbour who phone-harrasses women and ends up drunk and pukes everywhere. The little boy who, after six laborious months, finally shoots his cum, has his dog eat it and joyfully tells his entire family that he had an orgasm. Please.
Yes, a scene like the one where a father suggests demonstrating masturbation to his son will surprise you, shock you, make you smile, make you laugh, offend you, make you applaud the writer for his unapologetic manners, but once you're past the effect, Happiness will leave no room for you to reflect in any way, for the simple reason that there's nothing to reflect about since everything's done for the sake of spontaneous disgust and/or offence. If you want good sarcasm, taboo topics and impeccable cinematography, check out "Sitcom" by François Ozon, where a mother decides to sleep with her gay son to "cure" him from his homosexuality. It has an irresistibly witty and sarcastic dialogue, an asset that "Happiness" crucially lacks. When you want to be honest with people with topics as delicate as pedophilia, you need something to counter-balance it. Pasolini shot the most shocking sexual scenes in history but he had the most poetic cinematography and sound track to back it up with! It is one thing to push people's buttons to make them reflect on something and a totally different thing to go for shock value. Happiness is not the former.