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Canberra Today 14°/19° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review / ‘Hector and the Search for Happiness’ (M) ***

hector-and-the-search-for-happiness-M-252_-and__a_half_EDB7758_rgbTHE box office will determine whether this German/African co-production, the first film based on one of Francois Lelord’s novels about small-scale hero Hector (family name not stated), has the grunt to initiate a series.

Since its August release, IMDb users have rated it 7 on a scale of 10. It arrived in Australia with little or no fanfare.

Co-writer (with Maria von Heland) and director Peter Chelsom has made a soft-textured saga in which psychiatrist Hector (Simon Pegg) decides that his boring, unfulfilling life needs energising by searching the world to find the recipe for happiness. Psychiatrists can get depressed as easily as any of us.

Hector’s partner of a decade is Clara (Rosamund Pike) whose ferocious domestic efficiency extends to the tiniest details of his daily routine. She doesn’t want children. Or marriage. While Hector’s away, her biological clock will begin ticking. And aloneness will weigh on her spirit.

Hector travels in western China, Shanghai, Africa and California, meeting new people, looking up university friends, having adventures, experiencing joys, dangers and emotional variations, calling Clara on Skype, asking people he meets, “what does happiness mean to you?” and recording answers. The humour and tensions in those processes, mostly good fun, invite us to decide whether to admire Hector for his determination, pity him for his naivety or despise him for his egoism.

Enjoying Hector’s film warts and all is not difficult. A sequel? Not beyond the bounds of possibility.

At Capitol 6, Hoyts Belconnen and Limelight

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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