Today’s Prayer Focus

Happy Endings

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA)

for sexual content, language and some drug use.

Moral Rating:	not reviewed
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Adults
Genre:	Comedy Drama
Length:	2 hr. 08 min.
Year of Release:	2005
USA Release:	July 15, 2005 (limited)

Relevant Issues

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

For a follower of Christ, what is LOVE—a feeling, an emotion, or an action?

What is true love and how do you know when you have found it?

Learn how to make your love the best it can be. Christian answers to questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more. Valuable resources for Christian couples, singles and pastors.

Featuring	Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Jesse Bradford, Jason Ritter
Director	Don Roos
Producer	Holly Wiersma, Michael Paseornek, Mike Elliot
Distributor	Lionsgate (Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.)

“All’s well that ends swell.”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “Mamie (Lisa Kudrow) is being blackmailed. This filmmaker named Nick (Jesse Bradford) claims to know Mamie’s son—the one she gave up for adoption—but Nick won’t introduce her to him unless he can film the reunion. Enter Javier (Bobby Cannavale), Mamie’s massage therapist boyfriend, who convinces Nick to film him instead. Now they’re all making a movie about massage. And “happy endings”… Charley (Steve Coogan) has a longtime boyfriend named Gil (David Sutcliffe). Their best friends, Pam and Diane (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke), once tried using Gil as a sperm donor. They said his sperm didn’t take, but Charley thinks those selfish, control-freak lesbians are lying. Pam and Diane’s two-year-old son looks exactly like Gil. And it’s time to set the record straight… Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is pissed. Not at anyone in particular. Just in general. When her cousin kicks her out of the house, Jude shacks up with Otis (Jason Ritter), who’s still trying to convince his father, Frank (Tom Arnold), that he’s straight. Frank’s a widower. And he’s rich. So Jude decides to sleep with him, too. Really. The last thing she expected was to fall in love.”

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Movie Critics

…Subversively funny yet unexpectedly heartwarming, it’s one of the most outrageously entertaining comedies in years. It’s also one of the bawdiest…

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

…If only Roos could bring himself to let go of the characters sooner, forgo some of their interminable postscripts, “Happy Endings” would come to a happier ending.

David Germain, Associated Press

…The themes are about the power and consequences of sex, but the stories are too glib and episodic to leave any impression. …If “Happy Endings” was a pilot for a TV show, it wouldn’t get off the ground.

Jack Matthews, New York Daily News

…The movie itself seems discouraged by its depressed characters and tries to cheer us up with written subtitles…

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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