seems to be; he's put about a third of it onscreen in "Happy
Endings." Note to self: Story-telling title cards ruin movies; moving
pictures ruin books.
Now that I've got that out of the way...
Wow, what a witty movie Roos has made! In his
very-similar-to-"The Opposite of Sex"-but-still-different approach,
the filmmaker throws a jumble of straight and gay characters into
upscale L.A. abodes and lets the pieces fall where they may.
There's the lesbian couple that may have sired a child from the
sperm of a gay friend; there's the abortion counselor (Lisa Kudrow)
who did sire one, long ago, with the gay friend's partner, her
step-brother (Steve Coogan); and there's the hippiesh wild child
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) who latches onto the rich father (Tom Arnold)
of her band's drummer, also gay.
The movie gels not because of the tangential relationships among
all the storylines, a la "Magnolia," but because Roos explores the
themes of regret and personal happiness with a consistently ironic
but non-judgmental eye. He posits his characters in a world where
their indiscretions are not as important as how these decisions
come to define them.
There is not a foul performance among the lot, but in a perfect
world it would be Gyllenhaal up for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar
for her damaged, slithery, firecracker turn as the lost soul floating
through a drunken haze of lust and deceit. She's not a bad singer,
either; her throaty vocal performances only complement her
character's underlying vulnerabilities.
Perhaps Roos' foretold happy endings weren't necessary. The pic
would've been a fine film if everyone's lives were left unraveled --
and a bit more believable, too. But in a cynical world where trust is
hard to come by, I guess it was inevitable that these characters
would find something sturdy to latch on to by fadeout.
