Hector and the Search for Happiness

Hector and the Search for Happiness

Starring Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Jean Reno, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgaard and Christopher Plummer.

This is a fun comedy that I really enjoyed. The critics didn’t give it very good reports, but the reviews from the public on Amazon were much more favorable. I enjoyed the whole movie both for its fun, comedic side and for its deeper messages and investigation into the hiding place and meaning of happiness.

I also enjoyed the movie because I like Simon Pegg (from many British comedies, like Hot Fuzz), Jean Reno (from Ronin and The Pink Panther with Steve Martin – just to name a couple), Toni Collette (from Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense, Mental – just to name a few), Stellan Skarsgard (Ronin) and Christopher Plumber (The Sound of Music and a hundred other movies). It was fun to see them all in the same movie.

To get an idea of the movie, below are the notes Hector wrote in his notebook during his worldwide travels searching for happiness;

1. Making comparisons can spoil your happiness
2. A lot of people think happiness means being richer or more important
3. Many people only see happiness in their future
4. Happiness could be the freedom to love more than one woman at a time
5. Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story
6. Avoiding unhappiness… is not the road to happiness
7. Does this person bring you predominantly a) up or b) down ?
8. Happiness is answering your calling
9. Happiness is being loved for who you are
10. Sweet potato stew!
11. Fear is an impediment to happiness
12. Happiness is feeling completely alive
13. Happiness is knowing how to celebrate
14. Listening is loving
15. Nostalgia is not what it used to be

One thing the sick woman who said point 14, “listening is loving”,  also said – “People who are afraid of death are afraid of life”. Worth pondering.

At the end of the movie, Hector finds that true happiness is actually based on all emotions at the same time. “It’s all of them!” And that seems to make some sense. Life is a set of experiences, good and bad. Happiness is feeling all of these experiences deeply. Really living life. “His life was sometimes chaotic, but he liked it that way. He took comfort in the rich random patterns in his life.”

I found Hector and the Search for Happiness fun while also stirring up my thoughts on happiness. I recommend giving this movie a chance.