Something Like Happiness, directed by Bohdan Slama 2005.
I really should have more to write about this film than I do, so I apologize ahead of time for the brevity of this review.
A Czech film that embodies everything that is great about independent art cinema, Something Like Happiness is a simple story about real people. The two main characters of the story Tonik and Monika take care of two children basically abandoned by their mentally unstable mother and one time friend of both of them. Amidst this, Tonik struggles to simply survive and keep his house, Monika awaits news from her boyfriend who has gone to America, and multiple other subplots emerge and disappear as they do in anyone's daily lives.
And in that way, this is what makes the film so interesting. It simply feels so real and down to earth. This fosters a sense of identification with the characters and the audience finds themselves pulling for the characters as they fight through their day to day struggles.
It's simple, its sweet, and its never quite 'happiness'.....but sometimes its the simplest things that can create the most pleasurable experiences...
***and a half stars
1 comment:
I rather enjoyed how, for me, when Tonik and Monika were caring for the boys and living with his aunt, I completely ignored what we all knew had to be coming. The boys' mother returns to ruin both her children's lives (someone that unstable cannot help but cause her children to have serious issues later in life) and the something like a family that had sprung up around them.
So in more words than it needed, I concur. The film did a wonderful job of getting me to identify with the characters. I actually wanted them to find happiness, and that's fairly rare for me.
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