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# ‘Happy Endings’ couldn’t have come soon enough
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/happy-endings-couldnt-have-come-soon-enough/
- Published: 2005-07-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:26:17.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

The title of Don Roos’ (“Bounce,” “The Opposite of Sex”) latest is particularly suitable, because dammit if I wasn’t elated when it finally ended after two-plus hours of blah. Of the many curious decisions Roos made in this, his most disappointing film to date, foremost among them was stuffing far too many uninteresting characters into a meandering mise-en-scene rife with thematic clichés lifted from daytime soaps. For good measure, he also throws in plenty of the annoying au courant hallmarks of hipster flicks: Karaoke, intolerable babble disguised as intelligent discourse, jittery hand-held camerawork and, of course, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Of the three storylines running concurrently through “Happy Endings,” the central one is least appealing: Lisa Kudrow’s Mamie being blackmailed by a wanna-be doc-umentarian (Jesse Bradford) who knows the identity of the son she gave up for adoption two decades ago. Beyond that, there’s plenty of half-baked drama, mostly involving the intersection of gay and straight lifestyles — all of it with the flavor of days-old leftovers. (Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug use. Running time: 128 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 15, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)