All Happy Families
Haroula Rose’s second feature, blending comedy and drama, feels more like a TV pilot than a movie.
Chandra Russell and Josh Radnor
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
In addition to being its director, Haroula Rose, a Greek-American born in Chicago and now based in Los Angeles, also co-wrote this film with Coburn Goss and is one of its five producers. It is her second feature film and it seems right to regard it as very much her creation. When shown at the 2023 Lone Star Festival at Fort Worth in Texas it won the audience award and one feels that for the right viewers this is a piece not lacking in appeal. But at the same time, it feels like a rather odd offering: I don't recall seeing any other feature film which so strongly resembles a work created as a television pilot.
The title is a reference to the opening words of the classic Russian novel Anna Karenina and the film opens by quoting Tolstoy’s famous sentence in full: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". That might suggest that Rose’s offering is an ambitious venture which in portraying the lives of the Landrys, an American family living in Chicago, will aim at real depth and profundity. But in actuality this seeks to be a popular tale featuring characters whom viewers will find engaging and whose ups and downs they will want to follow. That's a standard TV formula which, if you can get it right, can yield a series with a large following and were All Happy Families an actual television pilot I could imagine it being taken up and doing well.
As for the Landrys themselves, we have here five significant figures representing three generations. The family home which is the main setting had been acquired by Roy and Sue Landry (John Ashton and Becky Ann Baker) but they have now moved on and the property is occupied by their younger son Graham (Josh Radnor) who is in his forties. Since he does not use all of it, he rents out part of the house and is currently looking for a tenant. As a youngster he had displayed acting talent but it is his older brother, Will (Rob Huebel), who has successfully built a career in television being featured in a drama series entitled Winsome Falls. However, it is the less confident Graham with his chaotic mismanagement of things with whom we are asked to identify and when Will turns up unexpectedly the interplay between the siblings becomes a feature – and all the more so because questions soon arise about what Will is doing there. This leads to talk of rumours of misbehaviour which, true or false, could jeopardise the continuance of his TV role. Just how Will's character should be assessed is usefully unclear. That applies too over what has happened after Graham, who also has writing ambitions, has handed Will his treatment for a future episode in the series to pass to the producers for consideration. We quickly realise that even if Will has done as requested, he has taken his time about it and has not even read it himself.
Since the parents turn up on a visit, we meet Roy and Sue too. Sue has just retired from years of working as a secretary and is very much the figure holding the family together although she has been put off her stroke by the unwelcome attentions of her boss Jerry Hoyt (David Pasquesi) during a farewell party for her. As for Sue's husband, Roy tends to drink too much and is also addicted to gambling falling back on loans from Will when he makes losses. The other family member who turns up is Will’s daughter Evie (Ivy O’Brien) a 16-year-old who has been brought up as a boy but who has recently come out as trans. In this way All Happy Families has five central characters each capable of development in ways that will contribute to keeping a number of plot lines running. Furthermore, there are other subsidiary figures that could be brought in from time to time, such people as Graham’s agent Lila (Colleen Camp) and a plumber named Phil Love (Antoine McKay) who at the outset is warning Graham that the family home will collapse unless vital work is carried out. In addition, yet another thread is set up in that when Graham does find a new tenant it proves to be a former college friend, Dana (Chandra Russell), and it is soon apparent that he is falling for her even if for a time he is hesitant to speak out.
The good news here is that if the piece is thought of as akin to a TV pilot it is such a promising one. The characters work well in this context and the film at 90 minutes does not outstay its welcome. But, on the other hand, the essence of a pilot is that it offers good opportunities to develop the situations in due course whereas here what is promising is sketched in but stops at that. For a cinema feature one really wants more rounding off of the material. It's also the case that the style of performance adopted by some of the players fits in with what can seem apt in a television series but which has a surface air rather than any deeper conviction. The one real exception to that is Becky Ann Baker who has a presence that makes her role as Sue feel more rooted and brings an extra sincerity to her sympathetic scenes with Ivy O’Brien’s Evie. As a one-off movie All Happy Families has its limitations but enough of it pleases for one to understand why some audiences, especially ardent TV lovers, could well find this very much to their taste. And, having praised Becky Ann Baker whose work is new to me, it is pleasing to add that she gets a scene in which she sings with another musician seen here, Rodney Crowell, while the duo can also be heard behind the end credits performing ‘Some of These Days’.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Josh Radnor, Becky Ann Baker, Rob Huebel, John Ashton, Chandra Russell, Colleen Camp, Ivy O’Brien, David Pasquesi, Antoine McKay, Rodney Crowell, Abrial Bonilla, Cassie Kramer.
Dir Haroula Rose, Pro Liz Cardenas, Coburn Goss, Ian Keiser, Mary Muñez and Haroula Rose, Ex Pro Rhianon Jones, Tristan Scott-Behrends and Michael Shannon, Screenplay Coburn Goss and Haroula Rose, Ph Johanna Coelho, Pro Des Ania Bista, Ed Carolyn Moore and Alex Márquez, Music Zac Rae and Oliver Hill, Costumes Samantha Yonan.
Fair Enough Productions/Chicago Media Angels/Neon Heart Productions/Attic Light Films/Glass Bead Films-Bulldog Film Distribution.
90 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 20 September 2024. UK Rel: 14 March 2025. Cert. 15.
