HAPPY EVER AFTERS

Ireland, 2009, 95 minutes, Colour.
Sally Hawkins, Tom Riley.
Directed by Stephen Burke.

Lots of Irish films these days – and lots of blarney. This one, as the title suggests, has quite some unhappiness now rather than happy ever afters. It takes place over one day and shows us two weddings. One is a Green Card affair with a marriage to help a migrant from Africa stay in Ireland. The other is a second attempt after one of the parties has spent some time in an institution and in therapy.

At first we think we are seeing the two central characters who are to marry each other. Then we find that there are the two weddings, with all the hesitations, reluctance and pressures to go through with the ceremony. Both parties arrive at the same hotel and some mix-ups, some funny, some corny, and a whole lot of misunderstandings lead to what looks as if it is going to be unhappy every afters.

Happy Go Lucky's Sally Hawkins is the bride for the migrant. Tom Riley is going through the second time around with his marriage.

This is the kind of film that, if you happened to catch it on television or saw it on DVD, might be an amusing but undemanding watch.

1. An Irish story, its tone, humour, serious?

2. Bray, the Irish coast, the churches and the hotel, Dublin, O’ Connell Street, the city sights? A sense of realism? The musical score?

3. One day, so much happening in the one day?

4. The title, weddings, mishaps? Ironies?

5. The introduction to Maura and Freddy? Getting ready for the weddings? Maura, Molly and her sister, the odd dresses, her hesitation? Freddy, his suit, bumping his head, the blood on his shirt, his father giving him a shirt? The cars and the arrival at the churches?

6. The churches, the irony of audiences thinking they were to be married to each other? Freddy and the remarriage? Wilson and Maura at the other church? Maura, getting steady and ready? The priest? Freddy, his sisters, father? The bride’s parents and their severity? The priest?

7. The ceremonies, the weddings? The guests? The glitches? The officials and their spying on Wilson?

8. The hotel, the staff, the bookings, the group arriving, clashes, separate rooms?

9. Freddy and Maura, the crash, the tangle, the bride and her reaction? Later the two of them in the lift? The massage, search for the contact lens?

10. Maura and the reality of the arranged wedding? Not quite telling her daughter? Molly happy at the wedding, then suspicious, the dance, Wilson’s girlfriend, the truth, upset, badmouthing her mother to Freddy, that she was beating her, her being lost, in the tree, Freddy rescuing her? The officials and the interrogation, helping her mother? The final resolution?

11. Maura at the ceremony, wandering, listening to the bride and her story, the institution? Freddy and the different tangles? The officials, interrogating Maura, Molly helping her with the story? The bride’s return, Freddy and the suicide attempt? The happy ending?

12. Freddy, the mess, his father-in-law dominant and threatening, the snobby mother-in-law, the tangles with Maura, the bride lost, the phone calls, cut off, her return, the dancing, the resolution, his wanting to commit suicide? The fact that he was in the institution?

13. The officials, the assistant and his clowning, good nature, the bets, the money going to and fro, the questions, apprehending Wilson? His story? Questioning Maura, giving in?

14. The bride, upset, not being in the institution, her suspicions of Maura, leaving the wedding, meeting the girls in town, drinking, the phone calls, going on the town, the return, the girls coming with her? Their reaction to Freddy? The parents? The daughter’s (*daughters’?) reaction, telling them off, feeling free?

15. The parents, pushy, the fighting?

16. Freddy, the perfectionist, going to the roof, his thinking about suicide?

17. The walk on the beach? The happy ending? A future or not?