POA reviews HappyThankYouMorePlease

By: Aida


If you want to make the most of the fresh start this spring has to offer. Then go to see “HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE.” It’s warm, young and as promising as the spring. It’s also a promising debut of the actor Josh Radnor as a writer and director. The movie was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010 and won the audience award for favorite US drama.

What I loved about the movie is that it has three independent stories. It is more of an ensemble rather than a story of one character. The stories are simple and real but that’s what makes them so compelling. Six young New Yorkers who are learning how to appreciate friendship, love and happiness. Josh Radnor’s character Sam is a struggling writer who unexpectedly finds a friend on the subway, a young boy named Rasheen. When Sam takes him to a police station and Rasheen refuses to go there. It turns out that the boy has been in six different foster homes. After learning that, Sam decides to keep him for a couple of days. Sam’s crush on Mississippi, an aspiring singer, gets serious and he has to figure out how to manage his fear of losing her and his fear of commitment. Sam’s close friend, Annie learns to receive love and adoration from a man that she would never consider as a potential boyfriend. A young couple, Mary-Catherine and Charlie, who are also friends with Sam, have to deal with “unexpected happiness” and their potential move to LA.

The movie is definitely worth the price of admission. It makes you think, laugh, and cry and just have a good time. It is about positive transformations of the characters and I think that’s what makes a good movie. It has a lot to offer to females and males of different ages. It is one of those movies that has tons of catchy witty phrases that will stick with you for a while. And, the first one is going to be: HAPPY THANK YOU MORE PLEASE

Chelsea Hancock:

Happythankyoumoreplease really challenges what it means to love someone; either as a friend, a coworker or especially in the romantic sense. Ted Mosby, I mean, Josh Radnor wrote and directed this endearing story.

Though there were some questioning moments in the film pertaining to common sense for the most part I thought that the relationship built between Radnor’s character Sam Wexler and love interest Mississippi is palpable and enjoyable but the most amazing and heart felt love tale takes place with Sam’s best friend Annie played by Malin Akerman. Annie has a hair follicle disease that forces her to try to be positive all the time, which the majority of us have never had to deal with. She’s always the voice of reason – the Oracle to Neo, the Rafiki to Simba the Obi-Won to Luke Skywalker and now we finally get to dig deep into her psyche and see that even the wisest and seemingly confident people struggle with self confidence and care so deeply about the opposite sexes view. She continually turns down coworker Sam #2 masterfully performed by Tony Hale.

Most of us know Hale as a hilarious sidekick or goofball in Arrested Development but for the first time I feel like I really saw him act and he did it perfectly. Annie finally sees through Sam #2’s nerdy exterior and allows herself to love.

The even bigger part of the picture is how important friendship can be. Sam Wexler takes care of Rasheen, a boy in foster care that gets lost from his foster care parent on a train. The two bond and learn about how important art and friendship can be on not only a young boy’s development but in an adult’s life as well. Oh, and did I mention that it’s funny? This movie has so much character and personality. Needless to say I really enjoyed the movie.

I left the theater a little bit more appreciative of the people I love in my life and it was so refreshing to see a movie with characters that are one hundred percent relatable, I felt like I knew every last one of those characters in my own life. So do yourself a favor, buy a ticket and don’t forget to say, “happy thank you more please.”

Emily McKinney:

I love Indie films. They are one of my favorite movie genres... that is, when they are done well. "Happythankyoumoreplease" was good. It was cute, it had a message, I liked it. It just wasn't great. It was your typical Indie film only this time it had mediocre acting and cliches. I thought it was cute and it had a good message, but there were quite a few things that I was not happy with. I wasn't angry that I watched it, but I definitely will not be sliding this DVD in between "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Lars and the Real Girl" on my movie shelf. It was worthy enough to win an award at the Sundance Film Festival, but not worthy enough to become a good, classic, Indie film. I recommend waiting until it hits rental to watch it.