After three tries, I finally managed to finish the movie The Happy Ending. I couldn't stand it, but I finished it. Call me old-fashioned, but I can never get behind a movie about a spoiled, bored housewife who has no problems and yet feels unfulfilled. She's wealthy and she can't stand how she spends her days, so she gets hooked on booze or pills. She has a devoted husband who loves her, yet she thinks sleeping with other men will solve all her problems. This scenario was really popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but I have yet to watch one of those movies and root for the heroine. Jean Simmons got an Oscar nomination for The Happy Ending, but the entire movie, including her performance, was very overrated.
Full of flashbacks of her fighting with her husband, John Forsythe, the present timeline involves Jean's escape from her home. She's had a suicide attempt, she's embarrassed herself in front of their friends, and she's hidden liquor bottles all over the house. Her maid, and "friend", enables her, and she helps Jean run away to the Bahamas. On the plane, Jean meets an old pal Shirley Jones, who's currently the mistress of a married man. Will a girls' trip full of swimsuits and cocktails make Jean happy? Will a string of affairs make her feel important? If you actually care enough to find out, you might also want to check out The Pumpkin Eater. The only redeeming element I found was that Jean got to show off her lovely figure, after so many years being forced to cover it up in the 1950s.
Full of flashbacks of her fighting with her husband, John Forsythe, the present timeline involves Jean's escape from her home. She's had a suicide attempt, she's embarrassed herself in front of their friends, and she's hidden liquor bottles all over the house. Her maid, and "friend", enables her, and she helps Jean run away to the Bahamas. On the plane, Jean meets an old pal Shirley Jones, who's currently the mistress of a married man. Will a girls' trip full of swimsuits and cocktails make Jean happy? Will a string of affairs make her feel important? If you actually care enough to find out, you might also want to check out The Pumpkin Eater. The only redeeming element I found was that Jean got to show off her lovely figure, after so many years being forced to cover it up in the 1950s.