Welcome to Happiness

Most of the dialogue seems like whispers and you need the sound turned way up, about the highest setting you have. And then the music comes I and knocks you out of your seat. How did it get released in this condition?

Seems like an art film project with good direction and interesting actors.

So many of life's lessons can be attributed to children's literature. Authors from Dr. Seuss to Shel Silverstein shaped the way young minds perceived the world and prepared them for what lie ahead. Welcome To Happiness, the debut film from writer/director Oliver Thompson, spins a fanatical tale in a similar vein. Aimed at the grown-ups we've ripened into, this clever comedy draws upon the "whys" we inevitably ask ourselves as we press on through to adulthood.

Dropping the viewer directly into the world he built, Thomson keeps a close rein on the goings on and rules set forth by his script, only answering so much before adding on more mysteries. The opening scene sets the tone of the film, quirky and playful yet not lacking real raw emotion...

This is a cute film with wonderful touches of mysticism and of course fantasy. But there are two comments I wish to make; one relevant to the film itself and the other is more about the practical production side of it...which is rather sloppy.

The first comment has to do with the message of the film which is timeless and very Eastern in philosophy. I will not spoil it for those who will wish to see it by stating point blank what that message is. What I will say is that it is vastly important to us all to understand it and by doing so perhaps it would help so many to find peace and acceptance in life from the suffering that is unavoidable and inevitable.

Let us not keep fooling ourselves by believing the ridiculous notion (and common messaging in our society) that negative life situations, happenings, etc., are something to be avoided or ignored, or worse... that our ultimate objective in this existence is to achieve happiness while avoiding the darkness life contains. The reality is that we cannot have one without the other.

Happiness is nothing more than that occasional lucky choice parking space we find and get to enjoy and for a short period of time; we're not meant to reside there forever. We do not grow and evolve in happiness. It is through suffering, pain, and conflict that brings about the opportunity for that, and only if we choose to make that conscious effort to do so.

When something horrible happens in life, we can take one of two roads when that ugliness rears its nasty head; the first is the easiest. Which is to let it make us bitter, angry, and terrible people who use that unfortunate occurrence to control us. Or worse, we allow ourselves to use our suffering as an excuse to take it out on others and the world on a whole.

Unfortunately, that is the common road most take. Many seem to gravitate towards wrapping victim hood around them like a badge earned, giving them justification to hurt others, treat strangers like s**t, and taking their hurt out on the world in general. As long as one chooses to do this, there will be no opportunity for growth, no evolution, no possible chance for further islands of happiness to find us, and just one long descent into a state of anger that will eat us like a cancer from the inside.

Then there is the more difficult choice, the one that sometimes takes everything we have and then some to peruse...and sometimes our entire lives to succeed at. Which is to take an ugly situation and make it the pillar by which we become something far better than what we came into this world as. We can derive strength, wisdom, courage, and hopefully healing. But even more so, suffering can bring about the opportunity to develop our empathy, compassion, and kindness for others in ways that no other experience can.

We can do this by making the realization that no matter what befalls us, there are many many others in the world who are suffering as we do, or in far worse situations than we can imagine and with having little to no chance to escape them. This is a key that if we let it, opens us to empathy for all living things.

Once we have our bearings again, we can then choose to give of ourselves to those who struggle in life as well. Out of empathy and compassion and kindness, we then cannot bare the suffering the world places on others. Our own pain can takes us out of ourselves if we allow it to. But even more important is how it can bring us to a level of emotional maturity where we finally realize that all the importance and effort that we place on our own selfish, self-absorbed, self-interests is grossly misplaced.

Nothing can be more rewarding than touching the soul of another in suffering and feeling that small spark of healing as it catches. There is no other way I can express it than this.

That is only part of what the story is about, as it is about something more profound, and yet that something is so easy to understand, so simple a realization that to this day I find it astounding we walk around oblivious to it. If only more of us could understand that regret has its purpose yes, but more importantly that sometimes what is bad in the moment, contains the seeds for good somewhere else and later. Often that good can occur long after we're gone for it isn't for us to always benefit from the results of things that occur in our own lives.

This is one example of the Chinese concept of yin and yang or each within the other creating the whole. I will leave it there as to go on would only reveal too much.

Now for the sour note in my comment.

I am very annoyed beyond reason that this movie suffers from what is a common problem that many people are and have been complaining about for quite some time now. And I am peeved that producers are not listening or doing anything at all to rectify this common problem which is entirely about one simple element that was never a problem in films prior to the last ten to fifteen or so years.

AUDIO

Why? Why? Why? Is it that...

1.) The soundtrack has to be unreasonably louder and out of complete balance with the audio levels of every thing else in a film? It is so bad that we now have to keep our fingers on our volume controls to constantly turn it down when the soundtrack plays or as in this film, any extraneous noises (like the printer that keeps going on randomly) are outrageously louder than the dialogue? This is not some relatively minor imbalance... it is a massive one. And it begins with the very opening scene when the printer blares into life... then the dialogue is so low that you have to put the closed caption on to find out what is being said.

2.). Dialogue?

When did it occur that in movie dialogue became insignificant to the audio of everything else. Cars, printers, sound tracks, random noises, etc., all get pushed to the front in the audio track and the dialogue is slammed down to the bottom. This is a common complaint in many movies today and has been for the past fifteen years and yet for whatever reason it is being ignored. Also, it is a problem unique to American films, as I have yet to encounter it in foreign films at all.

I believe one problem with dialogue in contemporary films today is actors mumbling slurring, or not annunciating their words as actors normally once did. The problem is so much worse now that even if there was no background noise or music, you often still cannot hear what is being said in films. It is so bad and so common that even automated closed caption cannot make out the dialogue much of the time. There comes a point where realism in speech patterns becomes more of a problem than whatever benefit to realism it contributes to the film.

Yes, I get it. American speech patterns are and have become increasingly lazier and nonsensical for the better part of three to four decades. I am not referring to jargon or slang, but simple volume and projection of ones words. Apparently directors seem to believe that having actors speak as if they're in a real life situation that somehow that is going to lend more authenticity to the characters. In reality it only makes a film come across as sloppy with second rate production consistency. Being able to hear what the characters are saying is one of the most important aspects of a film... not the loudness of machinery, or the uniqueness of the soundtrack, or whatever random noises that are placed in the background.

There were countless times in this film that I almost gave up and decided to just stop altogether and move on to something else... a book perhaps. But because the messaging and philosophy was so important and one I am deeply familiar with-I stuck with it.

Also, I do not wish to give the impression that it is just this movie alone that suffered from the audio idiocy that is prevalent today, it isn't by far. Almost ever film I watch that has been made in the last fifteen years or so suffers from it. I don't care that in reality people can't annunciation or speak a sentence without dropping volume or slurring before they reach the end of a sentence. It's ridiculous behavior in the first place. It's annoying to have to repeatedly ask a person to repeat what they said when they speak in this way. So to encounter it in so many contemporary films today is so annoying, that I do in fact jettison a film even if I'm more than half way through it.

So for this reason, I have deducted three stars from my rating.

It was a strangle inventive ride, and at the end I was moved and felt like I learned something.

Welcome to Happiness is about a children's book writer who lives in an interesting apartment. Once in a while, his 1990s printer would go off and a stranger would knock on his door. He would ask the strangers three questions from the printout and if they answered correctly he would lead them to happiness, which the door to happens to be in his bedroom closet, but after 5 years when this guy discovers that happiness is a place in which you can change the one big regret in your life, he becomes disgruntled with the fact that he wasn't given the opportunity to change his one regret.

The movie puts me on a very emotional ride. I relate to the lead character Woody, played by Kyle Gallner. It was a great experience. Kinda like the Matrix, but more down to Earth without the Sci-fi and the Kung fu. It's not a coincidence that Woody is a Children's book Arthur as the movie dishes out the life lesson it that same poise, only it's for adults.

It was a brilliant narrative from beginning to end. The first act I was digging but then it got to a point where I did not like the message the movie was generating, then kaboom! The whole thing was laid out in front of me and I felt it. I can't remember when the last time a movie blew my mind like that.

Plus Keegan-Michael Key is so amusing in his role. This guy is just so entertaining without even trying.

Recommend trying this movie out. I'm not really the type to be enlighten, but It did spark something in me.

You will be ..... rewarded if you watch this with an open mind.

I have never finished watching a movie and been so confused, but at the same time knew exactly what happened.

If you watch this and don't give up on it early you will be pleasantly surprised. For me it was the moral of the story and the way each person learned that kept me intrigued. There was deff quirkyness but it wasn't over bearing and the subtle comedic sub plots were absolutely perfect.

The acting was amazing, plot just perfect and when everything came to a final conclusion I wasn't left wanting more or less. It was just the perfect amount.

7.8.