Another Happy Day
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Metascore
46 out of 100

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

User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

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  • 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 trt 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

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 18
  3. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. Salon.com
    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. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    Nov 15, 2011
    60
    You could get whiplash watching this bipolar drama jerk between extremes: For every extraordinary scene - such as an authentically awkward exchange between Bosworth and estranged dad Thomas Haden Church - there's a sequence or three that might be extended collegiate acting exercises.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    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.
  4. Christian Science Monitor
    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

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. nameless
    8
    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
  2. movieboy
    7
    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
  3. jeremyp
    6
    This is a very depressing movie about a family reunion at a wedding. At the outset let me tell you that the only sympathetic character in it is a borderline who cuts herself, and she is sympathetic only because we hear such awful things about her before meeting her we are pleasantly surprised to see her presented as the most stable in the family. As a Family Therapist I can tell you this movie would make a great teaching tool. Every kind of crazy making behavior is presented. There are predators galore in many guises, and quite a few victims. Ellen Barkin pulls off a bravura performance as a panicked, put upon mother whose brood consists of the above mentioned borderline and an addicted, self centered, car crash of a son. She gets no help from an empty space of a husband (played blithely by "The Walking Dead's" Jeffrey DeMunn), and plenty of interference from her mother (Ellen Burstyn) a cold disinterested matriarch concerned with her looming widowhood, and her ex husbands wife (Demi Moore) who insists on taking all the credit for raising Barkin's son to perfection., not to mention two sadists masquerading as sisters.
    I credit the movie for not shoving our nose too deep into psychoanalysis and finger pointing. After seeing this be sure to call your relatives and take a moment to love them.    … Expand

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