HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE trailer review

Here's the trailer for Josh 'How I Met Your Mother' Radnor's directorial debut. No-one mention Zach Braff.

A multi strand story about a group of New Yorkers going through existential crises and suffering from mid-20's malaise. It may sound like the plot outline of a million different self-indulgent indie movies, but I'm totally on board for this one, largely due to the cast. This is Josh Radnor's first big screen outing as a writer and director, and the comparisons to Zach Braff's Garden State are unavoidable, but I think this looks interesting enough to get past that. Not that I didn't enjoy Garden State back in 2004, but Braff's career since hasn't done wonders to his film's legacy.

HappyThankYouMorePlease managed to get some good word of mouth at Sundance last year, going on to win the Audience Award for best dramatic feature. It looks like the Malin Akerman surviving cancer thread carries some dramatic weight, but with Tony 'Buster Bluth' Hale featuring also, there's the chance it could be sweetly romantic.

I'll freely admit that I'm a fan of How I Met Your Mother, and hopefully Radnor's picked up some tips there on how to deliver a believable story about dating in the modern world without pushing it too far in the direction of cheesiness. I'm sure Radnor's story is going to feature a romance between him and Kate Mara, while the segment with the lost young boy will surely lead to some Cop and a Half style hijinks. I hope it manages to stay the right side of schmaltz and offer up a few good laughs.


Who knows? This may just be light enough to appeal to a mainstream audience, and the obscure but quotable title alone will be enough to pull in the indie hipster crowd. That's clearly who this film is unashamedly aimed at. The advert at the end of the trailer, telling you to download the song from iTunes, says it all really.


Due March 2011
Anticipation Level