THE STORY – Former sweethearts cross paths years later and rekindle their connection, balancing careers, family duties, and personal dreams while rediscovering what they once had – and what they could become.
THE CAST – Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Mary-Louise Parker, Joe Tippett, Constance Wu, John McGinty, Jack Martin, Johnna Dias-Watson, Donald Webber Jr. & Chloë Kerwin
THE TEAM – Katie Holmes (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 90 Minutes
It’s hard to imagine that, in the nearly 30 years since “Dawson’s Creek” premiered, the iconic series not only cemented its legacy across multiple generations but also launched the careers of many actors, including Katie Holmes. Holmes, whose career in recent years has focused on her creative work as a filmmaker, is ready to make a major splash with her latest endeavor, floating the idea of a trilogy chronicling the romance between two star-crossed lovers. Throw in the fact that Holmes stars in the film opposite her former “Dawson Creek” co-star Joshua Jackson, and there’s potential to turn their on-screen history as actors into the foundation for a moving love story. If “Happy Hours” is to be the first of the series, it should also be the last, as the film, which yearns to be a swooning love story for the ages, descends into a hokey Lifetime-esque soapfest.
Holmes, who wrote and directed “Happy Hours,” stars as Liz, a professional photographer trying to keep her composure in the aftermath of her divorce. The film’s opening finds Liz spacing out in New York City, searching for genuine interactions for her work, yet everywhere she looks, she is reminded of her romantic shortcomings. That is, until a freelance gig brings her into contact with Jackson’s Andrew McCloud, a successful travel writer promoting his new novel, propelling him to the next level of his career. Liz and Andrew, who were once in a serious relationship, soon navigate a series of conversations to understand what went wrong between them and to find a way back into each other’s lives as adults. Holmes attempts to signify the circular nature of this relationship awkwardly cutting to flashbacks of her character’s relationship with Andrew in what is a vapid display of their feelings never fading over the years.
The screenplay is a mess, plagued by some of the most unintentionally comical dialogue from every character, which only makes audiences groan at how on-the-nose it is. Liz and Andrew’s relationship is not only unrootable in every way, but also the tensions that arise in this rekindled relationship are anything but organic. “Happy Hours” thrives on the contrived drama that is purely there to keep the wheels turning and inject some sort of stakes. The poor attempts at comedy fall flat unless it’s Mary-Louise Parker’s laissez-faire aunt who is there to advise Liz while yammering one-liners about her string of casual relationships. The only moments in “Happy Hour” that can elicit some form of amusement are the scenes in which Jackson stars opposite his long-time friends, played by John McGinty and Joe Tippett. The pair trade friendly blows at one another as their chemistry is far more natural here than whatever Jackson and Holmes are trying to sell audiences.
It doesn’t help that Holmes’ direction leads to some of the more baffling choices, from the incredibly flat cinematography to the disjointed editing that fails to integrate the past and present timelines. It’s almost as if “Happy Hours” can’t decide whether it wants to be a far more traditional romantic comedy or abandon it in favor of a Woody Allen-esque walk-and-talk introspection on life and love as a whole. There are scenes where Liz and Andrew are pontificating about their love lives and the things that have gone wrong for them, and it’s all but authentic. The film hits every expected beat of romance films that came before it, but with little heart or originality to set it apart from the many works that surely molded Holmes’ vision for the project.
There’s little here besides the novelty of a “Dawson’s Creek” reunion, and the fact that the idea of a trilogy being planned ala Linklater’s “Before Trilogy” is ridiculous. The conclusion, as ride-into-the-sunset as one could expect, as generic as this is, is as misguided as the film’s having a young Andrew Mansplan, Blondie, and poetry essentially for the audience. “Happy Hours” not only doesn’t work, but it isn’t worth the energy to get worked up over, as the romantic dramedy finds itself under the camouflage of many unremarkable films in this genre that will surely slip one’s mind as soon as the credits roll.
