Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

  • Summary: A family weekend is fraught with emotional landmines for mercurial and sensitive Lynn as she arrives at her parents’ Annapolis estate for the marriage of her estranged eldest son Dylan, accompanied by her three younger children. Lynn’s hopes for a joyful reunion are crushed as her wry but troubled middle son Elliot lobs verbal grenades at his mother and her relatives while daughter Alice, a fragile young woman, fights valiantly to keep her longtime demons under control. The weekend quickly unravels as Lynn demands to be heard by her aloof, disdainful mother, ailing, distant father and ever-judgmental sisters, but most especially by her ex-husband Paul and his hot-tempered second wife Patty. Confronted, oftentimes hilariously, with the deeply painful, half-buried truths that have given rise to the family’s primal web of resentments and recriminations, Lynn struggles to maintain her equilibrium as her best attempts at reconciliation veer quickly off-course. (Phase 4 Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 18
  2. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Nov 18, 2011
    80
    The younger Levinson has considerable storytelling talent, an admirable honesty and a streak of ruthlessness.
  2. Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    Nov 18, 2011
    60
    If this low-budget indie is any indication, the younger Levinson's creative sensibilities appear to be darker than his dad's, the voice clearly his own.
  3. Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    Nov 18, 2011
    33
    Dislikable movie characters don't always result in dislikable movies but that's certainly the case with Sam Levinson's Another Happy Day, a dysfunctional family meltdown movie about an impending wedding that only grows more aggravating as it unwinds.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Ellen Barkin is very courageous, she plays a character that is impossible to like. A character so self centered and self destructive that she makes House look like a people person. The difference is she thinks she is rational all the time and perpetually confused as to why she is rebuffed but never gives up in the righteousness of her point of view. It makes you think of people you have met like this. From an audience point of view you want to identify or like someone in this movie but every character is very hard to take. That makes this a tough movie to watch but you think about it for days afterwards... it haunts you. Expand
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  2. It's actually quite an interesting film with a swirling cast of dysfunctional characters who kind of compete for who is nuttier. It's more Bergmanesque than comedic and benefits from some great acting. Funny how one major reviewer suggested the only sane person is the family matriarch, played by Ellen Burstyn, but she's as wacky as the rest. It manages to be both enjoyable and rather painful. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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