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      Happy End

      R Released Dec 22, 2017 1h 47m Drama TRAILER for Happy End: Trailer 1 List
      69% 156 Reviews Tomatometer 54% 500+ Ratings Audience Score Although a middle-class family living in Calais deal with a series of setbacks, they pay little attention to the grim conditions in the refugee camps within a few miles of their home. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Aug 29 Buy Now

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      Critics Consensus

      Happy End is far from Haneke's best work, yet it still succeeds in forcing audiences to confront -- and uncomfortably consider -- the dark side of human nature.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Happy End finds Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant at fine form, while Michael Haneke struggles to unravel a relevant plot. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member An upper class family in Calais struggles with crisis. Although this film is of an obvious high caliber production, the lack of a coherent plot left it much to be desired. Either I'm not that smart or this movie made no sense. Given that this was a French film and perhaps much was lost in translation, the story was difficult, at best, to comprehend. There was no real beginning and no real end. It is not wrapped up in a nice little bow and for most films, it doesn't really have to be. However there was such a lack of explanation pertaining to the characters actions there was nothing for the viewer to grasp as reasoning. The best thing about this film was its ability to make yourself feel good about your own family. As crazy as you may think your family is, this one is crazier and not funny haha crazy. but perhaps it was meant to be crazy. Critics love this film, the general public probably does not. CritPop score of a 2 of 5 stars. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Otra vez Heneke y sus estilachos. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member The critics were unfairly harsh on this characteristically opaque examination of family secrets, betrayal and the mysteries of life. It's not an easy film to follow, at least initially, Haneke doesn't hold your hand or spell everything out, but that approach pays growing dividends as the onion is slowly unpeeled. Marvellous acting from his ensemble cast, led by Matthieu Kassovitz, Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Fantastique. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Director Michael Haneke's latest film, his first in five years, is a chilly look at the moral failings of the bourgeoisie (or perhaps the upper class). Isabelle Huppert is the neurotic head of a construction company, hoping to bestow this role on her son, who she constantly berates for not being good enough (an accident at one of the sites heightens this tension). Mathieu Kassovitz is her brother, a surgeon, whose 13-year-old daughter by a first marriage (Fantine Harduin) is suddenly added to the family when her mother attempts suicide; the daughter immediately senses that her father is having an affair (and investigates this on his computer; her smartphone is always near at hand, recording things). Jean-Louis Trintignant (now in his 80s) plays the retired head of the family, alternatively forgetful and lucidly perceptive; he seeks escape in death after having euthanised his wife several years earlier during a chronic illness (a nod to Haneke's previous feature, Amour, 2012). There is no linear plot to reveal; we just see the family with its various players rolling through a series of events that show their obliviousness to the suffering of the world (made a bit more overt when the son invites a group of African refugees into a fancy engagement dinner). We do feel the tension from these events but it is enhanced by the characters' inability to communicate with each other, to confess their own true feelings or to recognise those of each other. (Haneke uses some cinematic tricks, such as filming from a distance so that we cannot hear what is being said, to emphasise these failures). Our social pain may be even more acute when we observe the poor tween daughter and her own constricted emotions, clearly borne of the treatment received from those around her. As always with Haneke, there are ideas to chew on here but they seem slightly less well digested than in some of his other films. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member am vazut doar prima jumate in aer liber. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Happy End

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      Critics Reviews

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      J. R. Jones Chicago Reader If Michael Haneke should die before he wakes, I pray the Lord his soul to take, along with this half-baked sequel to his magnificent Amour (2012). Apr 3, 2020 Full Review Namrata Joshi The Hindu From its ingenious start to the nifty end, Haneke brings the viewers a full circle to this significant truth. Jul 12, 2018 Full Review Ben Sachs Chicago Reader The film remains interesting, if not particularly eye-opening, until it reveals how the characters are related. Then it becomes the sort of sardonic chronicle of upper-middle-class discontentment that Claude Chabrol did better with less portentousness. Mar 15, 2018 Full Review Dan Schindel Vague Visages Even retreading old content would be fine if Haneke went about it in an interesting way, but Happy End seems to be on formal autopilot... Dec 6, 2023 Full Review Dustin Chang Floating World It's the late Trintignant who steals the show. His scene with young Harduin is so good. Bleak in the assessment of our present society which is grooming a generation that lacks empathy, Happy End is in line with other great Haneke films & just as strong. Jun 27, 2022 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Happy End is not a pleasant experience, but it's a rich one upon close examination. Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 16, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Although a middle-class family living in Calais deal with a series of setbacks, they pay little attention to the grim conditions in the refugee camps within a few miles of their home.
      Director
      Michael Haneke
      Screenwriter
      Michael Haneke
      Distributor
      Sony Pictures Classics
      Production Co
      Les Films du Losange, X-Filme Creative Pool
      Rating
      R (Some Sexual Material|Language)
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      French (France)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 22, 2017, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Apr 13, 2018
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $198.5K
      Runtime
      1h 47m
      Aspect Ratio
      Flat (1.85:1)
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