Happy Ever Afters (2009)

Maura, a single mother, must get prepared for her wedding, something she reluctantly does. One can see her heart is not in it, but she is facing a financial crisis; she owes money to everybody. When some of her furniture is repossessed before she even leaves the house, Maura decides to go ahead with her arranged marriage with Wilson, the African man who is illegally in Ireland. Maura stands to gain about nine thousand Euros for going through the charade, which will allow her new husband in he country. Unknown to her and the future husband, their union is closely monitored by two immigration officers.Parallel to Maura's wedding, Freddy is remarrying Sophie. The first marriage did not go as well, ending in divorce. They have put aside their differences and will try again. Freddy, although doubtful this new wedding will work, has given his word to his former wife and now he cannot go back on his promise. We watch the hesitation as the priest asks Freddy for his vows. Sophie is a somewhat hysterical young woman, who might not be marrying again on her own accord but because she wants to please her parents.As fate would have it, the two wedding celebrations have been booked at the same seaside hotel. Freddy and Sophie's reception is basically all white, whereas Maura's is a mixed affair with a lot of black guests among the invited. Things do not go according to plan. Both celebrations turn out to be a disaster. Sophie, fed up with what her reception has become, flee the party and hook up with a group of lesbians in a pub. Maura and Freddy keep meeting each other in funny situations. They develop a rapport with each other they do not enjoy with their intended partners. It is not too difficult to realize they are really meant for each other.Written and directed by Stephen Burke, this appears to be his first full length feature, and it shows. The material had potential for more laughs. It is a romantic comedy with shades of screwball thrown into it. The excellent Sally Hawkins is at the center of the action as Maura. She makes a wonderful Maura. Same could be said about Tom Riley's Freddy, a handsome actor who matches his co-star well. Best of all is young Sinead Maguire who is seen as Molly, the girl who has an uncanny sense of timing, delivering a good performance that feels real, an accomplishment for the director. The action is not all even, something to do with Mr. Burke's screenplay. One gets the impression this is a film that was dumped to DVD and had a limited release.The film is worth a look because the presence of Ms. Hawkins, Ms. Maguire and Mr. Riley.

I rented this last night to watch with my partner and mother-in-law.It is utter rubbish. From the corny music, to the very poorly executed 'comedy of errors' acting/editing, to the completely disengaging male lead (he spends a good deal of the film sighing and fumbling for words, but not in a well timed way) this film is completely egregious from beginning until about 20 minutes in when we turned it off and watched 'Everybody's Fine' instead (which by the way, is amazing). We rented this from our Apple TV, and at one point I did consider penning an email to Steve Jobs to outline my disgust at it being added to the line-up on there.

Wonderful, relaxing, a bit crazy. This movie is great. I can't believe how underrated it is. Normally, I'd have given it a 9, but I chose 10 to rise up it's mark a little.The plot - twisted, crazy, chaotic. And this is exactly what makes this movie so great. The characters - I just fell in love with them. They're so witty and spiritual. At the end, I was thinking 'Oh common....no one acts like that; no one, after all that, keeps having fun; ...but actually, it would be SO nice if people were like that...'I think beneath all the chaotic stuff that happens throughout the movie, there is a very simple idea: you just have to take life as it is and enjoy every second of it.

I rented 'Happy ever afters' as a wild card DVD to watch with my wife. I was expecting a "Genuine, Laugh out Loud comedy", that's what the DVD jacket promised anyway. To say I was disappointed would be a massive understatement. In short this is the story of two separate and simultaneous weddings, sharing the same reception venue. The venue being the Hotel Napoleon (and not a restaurant as one reviewer reported). On one hand we have Freddie (Tom Riley) and Sophie (Jade Yourell) who are inexplicably getting remarried in a Catholic church following their (unexplained) divorce, on the other we have Maura (Sally Hawkins) marrying Wilson (Ariyon Bakare).. The latter being a marriage of paid convenience to keep Wilson from being deported. (Not Wilfred as the same myopic reviewer above stated)What unfolds is a tortuous non-plot acted out (and I use the term loosely) by disengaged, chemically incompatible actors. The premise of any good story is that you love, hate or empathise with the characters. With the exception of Molly (Sinead Maguire) playing Maura's daughter and Dessie (Simon Delaney) playing I'm not sure who, but doing it well anyway. I couldn't have cared less about anybody in this film. Even a free Bar wouldn't have kept me at this wedding!