Hector and the Search for Happiness is a 2014 British comedy-drama film directed by Peter Chelsom and co-written with Tinker Lindsay and Maria von Heland, based on François Lelord's novel of the same name. The film stars Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike.
Plot
Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. He tells Clara that he needs to go on a journey to research happiness, but doesn't know exactly how long he will be gone. Nevertheless, he asks Clara to wait for him. Hector's flight gets upgraded to business class to China, and is seated next to a cranky business man named Edward. He finds that Clara has packed him a notebook with which to log his journey.
He wants to fill out the immigration form , but needs a pen. Edward lets him borrow his pen, but tells him that he must return it. At the airport, Hector fumbles with his map and realizes he still has Edward’s pen. He rushes to return it, and Edward decides to treat Hector to a lavish dinner at a nice hotel. When asked about his idea of happiness, Edward explains that happiness is supposed to be about retirement and enjoying life, but because he works so hard and makes so much money, his happiness instead comes through enjoying the finest luxuries. Edward takes Hector to a very exclusive nightclub in Shanghai, where Hector meets a young woman named Ying Li and instantly falls for her.
He takes her out to lunch, where he asks Ying Li to go with him to the mountains to meet her family. She declines, however, as she is too ashamed of how she makes her living. Their date is then promptly interrupted by her pimp, who takes Ying Li away by force. Next, Hector ventures into the mountains and visits a monastery, where he befriends their leader and is able to contact Clara on Skype, but their conversation is cut short when a strong gust of wind topples the satellite dish. The monks then invite Hector to watch them dance beneath strings of multi-colored flags which flutter in the wind. Through his time with the monks, Hector learns that they find their happiness in spite of grief.
Hector departs on a terrifying plane ride to Africa, where he meets an African woman who invites him to her family's house for sweet potato stew. Hector meets his old friend Michael, a physician, and his bodyguard Marcel, who take Hector to his hotel. At the bar, he meets a quick-tempered drug lord named Diego Baresco, who doesn’t believe in happiness because his wife is unhappy due to her medication. Hector offers to look at her prescriptions. Noting some harmful interactions, he directs Diego to a colleague who may be able to help, borrowing Diego's pen in the process. When Hector leaves the bar with Michael, he realizes he still has the pen.
After spending a week helping out at Michael's clinic, Hector discovers that Marcel is more than Michael’s bodyguard. They are lovers, and they are happy. Hector meets the lady from the plane and enjoys sweet potato stew with her family. On the way back to his hotel, his vehicle is carjacked and Hector is kidnapped and locked in a rat infested cell. When the kidnappers decide to kill him, Hector claims to be friends with Diego to save himself, but cannot prove it. With a gun pointed at his head, Hector asks if he can make one final note in his book about what brings his captors happiness, but not before showing the pen engraved with Diego's name to the kidnappers. Upon his release, Hector makes his way back to the village where he celebrates with the locals. He Skypes Clara once more, who is dressed in a fancy gown and seems uninterested in talking to him.
Hector flies First Class to Los Angeles. On the plane, he attends to a woman with a brain tumor. With the pressure from the altitude causing her extreme pain, Hector convinces the pilot to fly the plane lower. When they land, Hector tells the paramedics not to take her to the hospital, but to see her sister instead. Hector then goes to the beach in Santa Monica where the photo from his sock drawer was taken and meets Agnes, one of his old girlfriends, who is now happily married with children. Hector calls Clara from Los Angeles, who immediately accuses him of trying to rekindle an old flame. The two have a heated argument which leads to their break-up.
Agnes and Hector meet with Professor Coreman, who is studying the effects of happiness on the brain. During Coreman’s lecture, he points out that people shouldn’t be concerned with the pursuit of happiness, but with the happiness of pursuit. Afterwards, Agnes and Hector go to Coreman’s lab and check out a project he has been working on, which monitors brain activity in real time and how it reacts to different emotions.
Agnes is instructed to go into an isolated room and think about three things, times when she was happy, sad and scared. Through his brain scanning technology, Coreman is able to tell which order she thought about the three emotions. When Hector takes his turn, he thinks about Clara marrying someone else. He thinks about his time being kidnapped and about Ying Li, but his emotions are strangely blocked. Hector then receives a call from remorseful Clara, who tells him she wants to be a mother. Hector apologizes for not explaining his trip and tells her what he's learned, and that the most unhappy thing he could imagine would be to lose her, while the happiest thing possible would be to become the man she would want to spend the rest of her life with. Suddenly Hector's brain scan erupts with a flurry of activity, mimicking the colored flags from the monastery and revealing that true happiness isn't just one emotion; it's all of them. Having finally achieved his own happiness, Hector rushes home and marries Clara.
Cast
Production
On 19 May 2012, Simon Pegg was cast in the title role, Hector. On 6 September 2012, Rosamund Pike and Christopher Plummer joined the cast of the film. Pike played Clara while Plummer played Professor Coreman. On 1 November 2012, Stellan Skarsgård also joined the cast, playing Edward. German actress Veronica Ferres also joined the film, playing a clairvoyant who has lost her ability to see into the future. The film began production in January 2013. On 2 April 2013, Toni Collette and Jean Reno joined the cast of the film, along with Jakob Davies. The film was made on a £9 million ($15 million) production budget.
Relativity Media acquired the US distribution rights to the film, and released the film there on 19 September 2014.
Marketing
The first trailer was released on 5 February 2014. Another trailer was released on 21 June. An international trailer for the film was released on 15 July 2014. On 22 July, the final trailer for the film was released.
Release
The film was released in the United Kingdom by Koch Film on 15 August 2014. Relativity Media released the film in the United States on 19 September 2014. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Reception
Hector and the Search for Happiness has been met with generally mixed to negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 35%, based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10, and a 60% score from audiences. The consensus states, "Simon Pegg remains as charming as ever, but Hector and the Search for Happiness drowns his appeal in schmaltz." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 29 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
References
External links
- Hector and the Search for Happiness at the Internet Movie Database