Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)

"Preamble...preamble...gotta work on my preamble." -Hector

"Sweet Potato Stew!!!!"  -So many people

This movie proves my rule that if Simon Pegg is in a film.  I will in all likelyhood enjoy it. Something about him on screen is just magnetic.

As to Hector and the search for happiness. I personally detest the internet mantra that negativity gets clicks or interest:  -Buzzfeed top 10 things wrong with American Sniper. -The real problem with Obama's state of the union. -13 horribly racist things from last week. and on and on.  However, I will break from my above bashing to take Hector and the Search for Happiness to the cleaner on one point.

Africa is a continent not a country. It's like saying, "I'm going to North America." and then spending all of your time in suburbs of Winnapeg. The film deliberately goes on a grand adventure to specific places like Shanghai, Tibet, and Los Angeles...and then goes to Africa. Not a specific nation, region, or city. Just Africa.  And the film repeats this often.  I might add that in "Africa" our hero immediately gets in a conversation with a drug lord. This then proves important as he gets abducted by unnamed bad men with guns. His only recourse to release is through his drug lord connection. I don't have so much a problem with the story as a problem with the idea that this experience speaks for an entire continent that stretches from Egypt to Mauritania to South Africa. 1.1 Billion people. This may have come directly from the book..but I do not abide the perpetuation of this long held geographical farce.

Apart from the above point, Hector and the Search for Happiness was a pretty good movie. But, I am not likely to watch it again. I liked the cast, the messages, the script, and especially the book with all the drawings and one liners about happiness that tied the story together. I also think that we should all expect to see Ming Zhao in more movies.  She played her part perfectly.  @Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgard. You were on screen for may be 15 minutes a piece and stole the show.

On a scale of despair to elation, I give Hector and the Search for Happiness 2.88 out of 5 stars.

*I've really notice that my new scoring system will bring down the scores from here on out. A purely average film will get 2.5 stars.  If you are an avid reader please make note of this change going forward.