Happiness for Beginners

Happiness for Beginners Netflix Review

Helen has always played it safe, but now, newly divorced, she joins a course promising the “adventure of a lifetime” with the hope of learning how to live, and love. She decides to enroll in a backcountry survival course hiking the Appalachian Trail. The group is made by 7 quirky members led by the hiking guide Beckett, who joined to test themselves again nature.

Aside from Helen, we met Windy, who studies happiness, Hugh an aspiring actor, Mason, a hiking expert who brags a little too much about how great he is at hiking. Jake, a former doctor, who joined to fight back against the hardwood of life, Sue, a young millennial who wants to take a vow of silence to commit to her spirituality despite being a talker, last but not least, we met Kaylee who joined to face her fear of wood.

What the rest of the group doesn’t know yet, is that Jake (Luke Grimes) is Helen’s brother’s best friend, who seems to have a crush on the newly divorcee. Is it a simple coincidence for both of them to be on the same hiking trip or there’s more to add to the story?

At The Viewer’s Perspective, we watch easily all genres but we LOVE romantic movies, we can’t get enough of them, when Ellie Kemper was announced as the lead of this new rom-com we were excited.

Happiness for Beginners is the new rom-com joining the Netflix library, although the comedy part never joined the movie, there’s more drama than comedy. It might give you a few chuckles along the way but nothing more. It’s a movie on self-discovery and introspection but the story remains quite superficial and very predictable, it never digs deep into the characters’ storylines, and their feelings, therefore the group doesn’t have a deep journey and change, at the end.

Helen wants a reset, she had a miscarriage, got divorced, she is hiking because she wants to stop to break promises to herself and to start keeping them, the trip represents the first step of many. She wants to know herself better but we barely have a glimpse on her journey of self-discovery. Only when Hugh injures himself, she takes charge of the situation and becomes the leader and the group’s problem solver, we instantly met a different person, but we didn’t witness the journey.

Hugh, the typical gay friend to the lead, is one of the few characters who could add comic relief to the movie but we lose him halfway through, because of a broken leg. Not the correct choice, anyone else in the group, would be more appropriate, many of them have very few lines and are easily forgettable.

For a rom-com, even if set in the wilderness, there are too many dialogues and scenes detail-oriented on camping and hiking, those are unnecessary as they don’t foreshadow a future dramatic or comedic event. After losing more than 3 minutes on the bear hang scenes we were expecting a bear encounter or something that could have justified the too-long act.

Ellie Kemper as Helen and Luke Grimes as Jake

The cast chemistry is quite nice, as well as, the couple chemistry between Kemper and Grimes. Kemper, usually known for more comedy roles gives a nice performance and is one of the reasons to keep watching the movie until the end.

One of the best aspects of the movie is the natural landscape and scenery of Connecticut’s woods, who becomes another actively cast member.

Happiness for Beginners is a lovely and nice romantic movie, with a predictable storyline that can be right for you if you are looking for a light movie night or to play it as a background movie.

Although, if you are a true romantic movies lover it will not be worth your time, there are few Hallmark movies better than this one.