Get Happy!

I get that the Get Happy movie message is you choose your happiness. We learn to program our subconscious minds to manifest happiness, every minute, every day. Part of happiness is managing pain from external causes. I thought the movie expressed this message particularly well, with enough twists and turns to make it seem realistic. Bobby was trapped by the cultural norm of fight, seeing happiness as ignoring rather than facing challenges. Then after Charlie solidified the message in his mind, Bobby finally saw the light, that part of happiness is managing pain, rather than ignoring it. Acting & directing seemed good as far as I can tell.

Get Happy is the story of Chris Rizzi who is generally a klutz with women to the despair of friends Adam LaVorgna and Rebecca Blumehagen. But he finds Lauren Sweetzer a rather extraordinary young woman with an eternally sunny outlook. When Sweetzer is killed Rizzi writes a self help book putting into words her philosophy and it becomes a best seller. He also turns into a ridiculous idiot unable to grapple with anything serious. This film is way too long and I'm not sure what it was trying to sat. Nice cast hampered by lack of theme in the story.

Until recently I did not even know the term "toxic positivity" but this movie already dealt with it years ago. It's a small budget indie but apparently ahead of its time. We meet Charlie, an awkward loner and all out miserable person who is even afraid of dating women. His friend wants to hook him up but instead he meets a super happy girl who wants to save him. Due to her influence he embraces toxic positivity at the expense of his authentic self. His "realistic" friend wants to recover his old miserable self. It's not really a romantic comedy but it has some funny and romantic moments. The psychological message is the main subject matter though. If you liked "Just My Luck" you will like this one as well. While at it you get served some deep insights into becoming a "whole" human being you'd need to read lots of books for otherwise.