Synopsis
Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.
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Cast
- Simon PeggHector
- Rosamund PikeClara
- Toni ColletteAgnes
- Stellan SkarsgårdEdward
- Christopher PlummerProfessor Coreman
- Jean RenoDiego Baresco
- Barry AtsmaMichael
- Veronica FerresAnjali
- Ming ZhaoYing Li
- Tracy-Ann ObermanPathetic Jane
Recommendations
- 50
Village Voice
Hector is trying to say something true about a generation of quietly dissatisfied demi-adults who are terrified to take emotional risks. At least it left its comfort zone and tried. - 40
Empire
Despite the gusto its star brings to the role, it's hard to ride shotgun on Hector's voyage of discovery. - 40
Time Out London
Simon Pegg plays the world’s most unconvincing psychiatrist in this fluffy, irritating Brit comedy. - 40
New York Daily News
Hector wants to connect to our inner child, but it feels more like a long story from a good-hearted but dull grandparent. - 40
The New York Times
Mr. Pegg, normally a live wire, makes an affable hero, but the movie often forces him into blandly earnest mugging. - 20
CineVue
If there's a positive to be taken away from Hector and the Search for Happiness, it's that British cinema doesn't get much worse than this. - 20
The Telegraph
What distinguishes the film from last year’s backpacking adventure, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, apart from its lobotomised worldview and charred, corroded soul, are Hector’s philosophical musings – “people who are afraid of death are afraid of life,” is one – that pop up on screen in a handwritten font whenever a lesson has been learnt. - 20
Variety
Happiness means steering clear of Hector and the Search for Happiness.
