Five years later from where we left our characters, again tackling sisterhood and friendship, this time with the inclusion of a new romantic arc.
Director Thabang Moleya Writer Ayanda Halimana Stars Renate Stuurman, Nambitha Ben-Mazwi and Khanyi Mbau Initially I thought I would review this film using my typical rubrics and then I realized that I would not be sharing exactly what I experienced.
Here is my opinion on the film Happiness Ever After.
SETTING...
Set in Johannesburg, I really thought that the location was perfect. The issue with the setting is that the film was too "closed off" meaning that even moments that were meant to be meaningful seemed insignificant because of the closed setting, which basically is not a big issue but here is where I am going with this...
ATTENTION TO DETAIL The most cringe worthy thing with the setting is how they were so careless with certain things, for example, the scene at the barbershop, that was a moment where we could have dived in deeper to the two male characters, however, because of how careless the team was, the audience only focused on the film's mistakes.
They had a shot that showed the barber who was trimming Yonda's beard, in the shot the blade was obviously blunt (duh), and he was not trimming hair, it was just done for camera purposes and not the audiences benefit. Which took away from what the two guys were talking about.
Why do I bring this up?
Attention to detail. Movies are meant to build a certain illusion, they allow the audience to jump into that "reality" without thinking of it as fake for an hour or two.
Setting in this movie was great to be honest but, more than anything the setting did not help with helping us reach and be attached to the characters. I focused more on guessing where they filmed and how nice the houses were.
The movie also showed a picture where the previous lead (Mmabatho) was in, but no one explained what happened to the old lead and/or why was she shown in the first place.
The scene where Zaza kisses the Lawyer in her dead husband's building.
Issue?
The first shot of that location did not exactly give us an indication that the two might be flinging... the only insight we got was the little hand touch and the zoom in on her face. Because in my head I had assumed that with the offices being so open they would not actually do anything that required privacy.
The biggest funny spoof, yes! A spoof, because I don't think that the scene where they had friends over (dinner party) was an actual scene. Firstly, this movie was so disrespectful, because it literally introduced random people and then those same people served no purpose. No purpose at all.
The movie had a dinner party scene, in that scene they introduce this group of friends who we knew nothing about, but one of the girls all of a sudden has a clash with Zaza... I am not making this up, there was a scene where random people, were given a dialogue, lines, and a few re-dos, yet those people served no purpose at all. At all.
Characters Zim... This film was marketed as the sequel to Happiness Is A Four-Letter Word, but to my surprise the original lead was replaced with Nambitha. She then narrates the film, which was very odd because the film just throws this new character at us and expects us to all of a sudden understand. Why did Renate (Princess)) not narrate? We know her, we felt her pain.
I had no idea who this Zim woman was, why she was present and why I had to care about her. She was put there to just be a placement, like the Destiny's Child syndrome.
Most of her life (on screen) is all exposition, she would tell us about her life but it was difficult to care about her because she kept telling us about her "tragic" heartbreak, it would have been great if we experienced the heartbreak that she shared.
Remember the golden rule of film "Show Us Don't Tell Us."
What was most terrible to watch was how she narrated the story from a balanced perspective but what she did on screen was complete opposite, she was like a child who recently started dating and failed to understand why she got stood up/ ghosted. Most of the things with this character happened off screen so if the audience did not see it then it did not happen.
Zaza...
Honestly, I was hoping that the Novel would be somewhat referenced more and maybe changed here and there. Zaza was a fun and relatable character in the first part, in the sequel she was a complete let down.
She was an unfit mother, who was hardly home, and the movie made sure of that. It would have been great if we saw Zaza outside of that box... they should have taken her make up away, made her gain weight and have her be an ACTUAL mother from a relatable perspective. Yes, I'm playing on stereotypes. Because with that take, we would have understood better why they introduced Xolile Tshabalala in the first place.
I failed to understand how they would just tell us that Zaza's husband is dead without actually letting us experience the death. We never got to experience their relationship in part one and guess what, the movie just said, Bheki is dead and we had to move on.
A year later, Bheki magically has a sister (Xolile Tshabalala), who was supposed to be in Zaza's house for a minute, she came there with her mother (Husband's mom).
Problem? The movie gives them a reason to be there but then turn around and say something else. Next thing we knew, the sister now wants to run the company, which was more confusing because she was introduced as a visitor, but somehow, she calls the shots.
There is a scene where Zaza kisses the lawyer guy, that scene was also deliberately put there for convenience sake so that the sister could catch them. The film screams "happiness" but turns around and says "naaahhh let them be miserable, this is not a feminist movie, so let us hammer how much we need men".
That scene felt out of place, it felt like someone in the production team just decided on that scene.
Zaza's character is further ridiculed by making her seem like she is just a gold digger and an unfit mother, which the movie was correct about those things because the sister took a decision to take her kids away.
But at the same time, they also try to make her appear like she cares about her kids... so the movie was very self-aware.
Had the sister saw that Zaza was struggling to balance losing her husband, being a full-time mother and running a company only then her actions would have been effective enough to make us feel something. But instead, the film needed an antagonist and they threw her in.
So, the movie had no idea which narrative to stick with. It was like it kept changing its mind whenever it saw fit.
Princess... This is the one character that could have anchored the whole thing. Think about it this way, Lord of The Rings... most of the time we follow Frodo, that character anchors every event and every new character we meet. We then follow them and get attached to them because they all serve one purpose, helping Frodo take the ring to the fire. The story has one point to reach.
But here, we met Zim, who also served no purpose at all, she didn't save the day, she did not stop Princess from hooking up with her crackhead ex, she did not tell Zaza to be more involved in the business and her kid's life... she served no purpose. She was just a placement.
Princess, always gave us a story, but this time around I felt like her parts were chopped off, because some of her choices seemed to have been "director's cut" which Thabang (director) cut out the best parts of that character.
The character showed major development in the first part but now, they just set her back to her previous ways which was pretty stupid and it was a poor call.
Conclusion?
Storylines were too all over the place, there was no anchor, the movie just made these women seem like they are a bunch of bumbling bimbos. At least wine was replaced with champagne.
The movie felt too unrealistic, the actors were too superficial. It would have been great to actually have them do things and change things apart from listening to their under-nose clunky exposition.
I was expecting to see the amazing Xolile Tshabalala throw hands with Khanyi Mbau, instead the movie retained Khanyi as a blabber mouth Barbie doll with no depth.
I felt no connection with any of the characters, their stories were just watered down and practically poorly made up.
Zim: forced a relationship.
Zaza: is a forced character.
Princess: they killed a good character.
Do I recommend it? It is really up to you whether you want to watch it or not.
Director Thabang Moleya Writer Ayanda Halimana Stars Renate Stuurman, Nambitha Ben-Mazwi and Khanyi Mbau Initially I thought I would review this film using my typical rubrics and then I realized that I would not be sharing exactly what I experienced.
Here is my opinion on the film Happiness Ever After.
SETTING...
Set in Johannesburg, I really thought that the location was perfect. The issue with the setting is that the film was too "closed off" meaning that even moments that were meant to be meaningful seemed insignificant because of the closed setting, which basically is not a big issue but here is where I am going with this...
ATTENTION TO DETAIL The most cringe worthy thing with the setting is how they were so careless with certain things, for example, the scene at the barbershop, that was a moment where we could have dived in deeper to the two male characters, however, because of how careless the team was, the audience only focused on the film's mistakes.
They had a shot that showed the barber who was trimming Yonda's beard, in the shot the blade was obviously blunt (duh), and he was not trimming hair, it was just done for camera purposes and not the audiences benefit. Which took away from what the two guys were talking about.
Why do I bring this up?
Attention to detail. Movies are meant to build a certain illusion, they allow the audience to jump into that "reality" without thinking of it as fake for an hour or two.
Setting in this movie was great to be honest but, more than anything the setting did not help with helping us reach and be attached to the characters. I focused more on guessing where they filmed and how nice the houses were.
The movie also showed a picture where the previous lead (Mmabatho) was in, but no one explained what happened to the old lead and/or why was she shown in the first place.
The scene where Zaza kisses the Lawyer in her dead husband's building.
Issue?
The first shot of that location did not exactly give us an indication that the two might be flinging... the only insight we got was the little hand touch and the zoom in on her face. Because in my head I had assumed that with the offices being so open they would not actually do anything that required privacy.
The biggest funny spoof, yes! A spoof, because I don't think that the scene where they had friends over (dinner party) was an actual scene. Firstly, this movie was so disrespectful, because it literally introduced random people and then those same people served no purpose. No purpose at all.
The movie had a dinner party scene, in that scene they introduce this group of friends who we knew nothing about, but one of the girls all of a sudden has a clash with Zaza... I am not making this up, there was a scene where random people, were given a dialogue, lines, and a few re-dos, yet those people served no purpose at all. At all.
Characters Zim... This film was marketed as the sequel to Happiness Is A Four-Letter Word, but to my surprise the original lead was replaced with Nambitha. She then narrates the film, which was very odd because the film just throws this new character at us and expects us to all of a sudden understand. Why did Renate (Princess)) not narrate? We know her, we felt her pain.
I had no idea who this Zim woman was, why she was present and why I had to care about her. She was put there to just be a placement, like the Destiny's Child syndrome.
Most of her life (on screen) is all exposition, she would tell us about her life but it was difficult to care about her because she kept telling us about her "tragic" heartbreak, it would have been great if we experienced the heartbreak that she shared.
Remember the golden rule of film "Show Us Don't Tell Us."
What was most terrible to watch was how she narrated the story from a balanced perspective but what she did on screen was complete opposite, she was like a child who recently started dating and failed to understand why she got stood up/ ghosted. Most of the things with this character happened off screen so if the audience did not see it then it did not happen.
Zaza...
Honestly, I was hoping that the Novel would be somewhat referenced more and maybe changed here and there. Zaza was a fun and relatable character in the first part, in the sequel she was a complete let down.
She was an unfit mother, who was hardly home, and the movie made sure of that. It would have been great if we saw Zaza outside of that box... they should have taken her make up away, made her gain weight and have her be an ACTUAL mother from a relatable perspective. Yes, I'm playing on stereotypes. Because with that take, we would have understood better why they introduced Xolile Tshabalala in the first place.
I failed to understand how they would just tell us that Zaza's husband is dead without actually letting us experience the death. We never got to experience their relationship in part one and guess what, the movie just said, Bheki is dead and we had to move on.
A year later, Bheki magically has a sister (Xolile Tshabalala), who was supposed to be in Zaza's house for a minute, she came there with her mother (Husband's mom).
Problem? The movie gives them a reason to be there but then turn around and say something else. Next thing we knew, the sister now wants to run the company, which was more confusing because she was introduced as a visitor, but somehow, she calls the shots.
There is a scene where Zaza kisses the lawyer guy, that scene was also deliberately put there for convenience sake so that the sister could catch them. The film screams "happiness" but turns around and says "naaahhh let them be miserable, this is not a feminist movie, so let us hammer how much we need men".
That scene felt out of place, it felt like someone in the production team just decided on that scene.
Zaza's character is further ridiculed by making her seem like she is just a gold digger and an unfit mother, which the movie was correct about those things because the sister took a decision to take her kids away.
But at the same time, they also try to make her appear like she cares about her kids... so the movie was very self-aware.
Had the sister saw that Zaza was struggling to balance losing her husband, being a full-time mother and running a company only then her actions would have been effective enough to make us feel something. But instead, the film needed an antagonist and they threw her in.
So, the movie had no idea which narrative to stick with. It was like it kept changing its mind whenever it saw fit.
Princess... This is the one character that could have anchored the whole thing. Think about it this way, Lord of The Rings... most of the time we follow Frodo, that character anchors every event and every new character we meet. We then follow them and get attached to them because they all serve one purpose, helping Frodo take the ring to the fire. The story has one point to reach.
But here, we met Zim, who also served no purpose at all, she didn't save the day, she did not stop Princess from hooking up with her crackhead ex, she did not tell Zaza to be more involved in the business and her kid's life... she served no purpose. She was just a placement.
Princess, always gave us a story, but this time around I felt like her parts were chopped off, because some of her choices seemed to have been "director's cut" which Thabang (director) cut out the best parts of that character.
The character showed major development in the first part but now, they just set her back to her previous ways which was pretty stupid and it was a poor call.
Conclusion?
Storylines were too all over the place, there was no anchor, the movie just made these women seem like they are a bunch of bumbling bimbos. At least wine was replaced with champagne.
The movie felt too unrealistic, the actors were too superficial. It would have been great to actually have them do things and change things apart from listening to their under-nose clunky exposition.
I was expecting to see the amazing Xolile Tshabalala throw hands with Khanyi Mbau, instead the movie retained Khanyi as a blabber mouth Barbie doll with no depth.
I felt no connection with any of the characters, their stories were just watered down and practically poorly made up.
Zim: forced a relationship.
Zaza: is a forced character.
Princess: they killed a good character.
Do I recommend it? It is really up to you whether you want to watch it or not.
