Saturday, November 22, 2014

Not Another Happy Ending (2013)


I think everyone in their life would like to write a book. When it comes to writing a story I have heard the saying “write what you know.” That is basically what all authors do anyway. We all think what we know, what we are interested in, would interest and attract readers. My interests are movies and museums and art. All of those have been done a million times in fiction. Highly doubt there would be an interest in the kind of books I would like to write. And, to be very honest and open about it, I have no love life and never really have to be able to write a soppy chick book. Why would I even want to write a soppy chick novel? Who still reads those and enjoys those? (Look up my review of The Vow where I go on a massive rant of chick movies. Chick story anything makes me want to barf). Maybe one day when my life is a little more settled I will write a book based off what I know.  It will most likely just be for me, I doubt there will be a market for what I want to write about. With museums and art everyone wants the next Da Vinci Code. The book and the movie were fucking brilliant, there is no toping either.
            Anyway, this is about a movie not about me wanting to write a book. This is, however, a review of a movie called Not Another Happy Ending and it is about a young girl named Jean Lockhart (Karen Gillan) who has written a book based on her father who had left her when she was very young. All of the big publishing companies reject. A small publishing company run by a single man named Tom Duval has taken a liking to her story. He is a grumpy guy at first but as he and Jean work together making corrections and rewrites to her book, they kind of fall for each other.
            Jean get super pissed with Tom when she sees he has changed the title of her book. She cannot even stand talking or being in the same room with her. Despite the title change, her book becomes a huge hit. It manages to save Tom’s company from bankruptcy.
            The contract Jean signed is for two books. She has no problem writing the book until she comes to the very last chapter. Tom sees what her problem is now: when she wrote her first books she was full of angst and not very happy. Since writing her first book Jean has reconnect with her father and is now living with her boyfriend, Roddy, who is a screenwriter adapting her book for the movies. Tom sets out to try to make her miserable by sabotaging a few things.
            There are a few details thrown in the middle that I will not harp on. Just know that Jean starts seeing her book character as if she was real, Roddy is a jerk and changes the ending of the story for the movie, and, of course, Jean and Tom see that they love each other and she winds up signing on for another book deal with his company.

            Not Another Happy Ending was kind of typical. I say kind of because this was made in Scotland far away from the awful Hollywood rut. I usually find European movies, yes, even rom-coms, better than the ones made in America. I knew from the moment Jean and Tom met that they were going to be together at the end. One of the best differences I noticed between this rom-com and American ones is that the girl does not have her head in clouds. She is smart and gets nicely pissed off when Tom changes her book title and Roddy changes the ending. She does not have a girly hissy fit she got pissed at Tom and threw his award at him, with Roddy she kicked him out. No one really lost their shit and I liked that a lot. Karen Gillan was fabulous. I have yet to see her on Dr. Who, I do know her from the show Selfie (which I actually really liked and I am kind of ashamed to admit that) and she was totally adorable in that. The actor who played Tom was very good as well. He was very handsome. Not Another Happy Ending was good. It is not a movie I would recommend to everyone but if you can find it give it a go. 

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