'Happy Endings': A quirky look at parenting options

Making a welcome comeback after stumbling with 2000's too conventional romantic comedy Bounce, writer-director Don Roos returns to his quirky, dysfunctional roots with the ironically titled Happy Endings, a look at adoption, artificial insemination and other parenting options in America today.

Lions Gate Entertainment 'Happy Endings' B- The verdict: Quirky, character-driven comic drama of parenting options, which gradually unravels. Director: Don Roos Starring:Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Jesse Bradford Run time: 128 minutes Release date: July 15, 2005 Rating: R for sexual content, language and some drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Happy Endings"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

While not as satisfying as Roos' debut film The Opposite of Sex, it does feature another impressive performance by Lisa Kudrow, further proof that she was underemployed all those years on Friends.

Kudrow plays Mamie, who dallied with her half-brother Charley 20 years earlier, got pregnant, considered an abortion, but instead gave up the baby she now wants to track down. Charley (Steve Coogan) is in a long-term gay relationship, neurotically challenging the paternity of the child of a lesbian couple.

Nicky (Jesse Bradford) is a would-be filmmaker who wants to shoot Mamie's search for her son, then switches subjects to her hunky Mexican masseur boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale.)

Oh, and there's conniving Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who seduces a young, sexually ambiguous rock band drummer (Jason Ritter, John's son), then throws him over for his rich widower dad (Tom Arnold).

Roos keeps all these balls in the air for most of the movie, as parallel stories and characters gradually intersect, but happiness is not an option for most of these folks. Frequent slide-in titles comment on the action in a way that soon grows tiresome. As an early one notes, this is a "comedy ... sort of," and the movie hangs together, sort of.

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