Happiness for Beginners Review

Streaming Movie Review - Netflix

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

About a month ago, I read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild.” It is about her time hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and is a gorgeous piece of writing, born from the time following her divorce when she didn’t know what to do with herself. The story resonated with me in a way that I didn’t expect, and is one I expect I will revisit. When I saw that the premise for the Netflix movie “Happiness for Beginners” from writer and director Vicky Wight was similar, I was intrigued. 

Helen (Ellie Kemper) is recently divorced. She wants to find a way to reset her life, so she signs up for a beginning hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail. The leader, Beckett (Ben Cook), is antagonistic toward her and additionally, her brother’s friend Jake (Luke Grimes), who tried to talk her out of her marriage in the first place, is there as well. Over the course of the hike, Helen battles both physical and emotional pain and must figure out what path her life will follow when she leaves the AT.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I think I’m a bit predisposed to like just about anything Ellie Kemper does, but I found this movie charming and sweet. 

The story is nothing particularly unique, and I wish it would have examined some of the inciting incidents with a little more detail, but overall, I liked how it was handled. It delved into some areas, particularly about the way we interact with siblings, in ways that I wasn’t expecting. And while it ends in a largely predictable manner, I still found that ending satisfying. 

I wouldn’t say that there are any standout performances in this. Kemper plays a slightly less bubbly version of the character she usually gives us, but it is still firmly a Kemper-type character and performance. What works in this movie is the interaction of the cast. The way the characters come together and share parts of themselves feels authentic and that is to the credit of the actors.

The team filmed on a part of the AT in Connecticut, and this definitely adds to its charm. Given that so many movies are filmed on soundstages, actually seeing actors in nature for a film that is about being in nature adds something to it that would otherwise be missing. Plus it leads to some truly beautiful shots in the movie.

This is a movie that is absolutely more than the sum of its parts, and I think that is part of what worked for me. Life after a major upheaval like a divorce or a death or a health challenge might feel like it’s never going to be okay again. We might only be able to see small snippets of good here or there. But if we open ourselves up to exploring something more, we can find strength and joy that we didn’t know we were capable of. We might have to start over, but we can be happy again.

This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on August 12, 2023.