The new South African movie Happiness Is… is the third film in the popular Happiness series that follows several friends as they search for love and success. In this latest installment, Renate Stuurman reprises her role from the previous films as Princess, a woman who’s got a great life, but no man to share it with. When her friend Tumi (Gail Mabalane) insists on throwing Princess a big destination 40th birthday party, both women are forced to figure out what – and who – they really want in their lives.
Opening Shot: A woman hears an alarm going off on her phone as she gets out of bed. It’s a reminder that it’s 4 days until her 40th “rebirth” a.k.a. her birthday.
The Gist: Princess is a successful woman who runs an art gallery in Johannesburg, has a beautiful daughter, Thandi, and a solid co-parenting relationship with her ex, Leo (Richard Lukunku). But as she approaches 40, she longs for someone to share her life with. Her best friend Tumi, an event planner, is a zealous type, insisting that for Princess’s upcoming 40th birthday, she will throw her a lavish birthday bash. Princess is excited for the party, asking her ex Leo if he’ll accompany her as her date since they’re in a pretty good place, but he rejects the invitation, revealing that he’s seeing someone. An mean-spirited argument ensues and insults are thrown, and Princess calls off the party…but Tumi doesn’t cancel it.
Princess leaves town to have a quiet weekend at her mother’s new country home to relax, and against her wishes Tumi sends a convoy of caterers and event planners to the house so the party can be relocated there. The one bright spot is that the head chef is hot and Princess can’t help but flirt with him. Soon enough, a lot of random people start arriving to the house, including Tumi’s boyfriend Sabs, his sister Nelly, and Nelly’s new boyfriend… who happens to be Leo. Princess is shocked to see her ex (he didn’t realize this party he was invited to was for Princess) but even worse, a huge storm is rolling in, stranding Princess and all of these uninvited and unwelcome guests at the house.
Princess allows everyone to stay on the condition that there’s no big party, that she celebrate her birthday with a calm, quiet dinner party and that’s it. Tumi agrees to that, but has plans of her own, moving ahead with her plans to throw a surprise blowout. This is one of many deceptions and lies between this group over the weekend. Later, when Princess deduces that Nelly is suffering from morning sickness and is pregnant, she reveals that fact to everyone, including the father, Leo, who is hurt that his girlfriend would hide something like that from him.
At the party, Tumi gets drunk and makes a toast that’s partly in honor of Princess and partly an homage to herself for throwing the party. This goes over poorly with Princess and it devolves into a cake fight as both women hurl insults about each other’s selfishness and failed relationships. While the guests are all watching the chaos, Sabs slips out of the party, depressed that Tumi is playing games with him and wont reciprocate the love he has for her. The next morning when everyone realizes he’s gone, they panic , heading out into the woods to find him. Fortunately he’s fine, but he’s had time to realize that Tumi isn’t the woman for him – but Sabs’ disappearance had the opposite effect on Tumi, and she realizes she doesn’t want to be without him. And then they immediately just get engaged.
Meanwhile, Leo and Princess realize that they still mean a lot to one another (as co-parents) and Princess finds it in her heart to be happy for Nelly’s pregnancy. And in the end, the hot chef Princess had been flirting with the whole time might just be the man she’s been looking for.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The film is the third in the Happiness series, after Happiness Ever After and Happiness is a Four Letter Word, featuring many of the same characters.
Our Take: Happiness Is… is an ironic title for a film that doesn’t seem to understand how normal people find happiness. All the characters are simply playing games with each other throughout the film, with no awareness that their self-sabotage will end in despair rather than happiness. Princess and Leo, despite being exes, spend the whole film resenting the fact that the other might have a new love interest, and while that’s a valid, honest feeling, it seems to consume everything they do. It also doesn’t excuse why Princess treats Nelly so terribly. Tumi isn’t ready to say “I love you” to her “situationship” partner Sabs, and so instead of simply telling him she’s not ready, she finds a hot guy to parade in front of him to make him jealous. Sabs is clearly hurt and confused by how Tumi pushes him away, but the way her character is written, she seems only built to care about herself. It’s hard to care for characters as shallow and selfish as that.
In fact, while the film is beautiful to look at, with its gorgeous South African backdrop and it’s setting at a vacation house that would make Nancy Meyers jealous, the guests who inhabit the place are either hot-headed or irrational or so self-centered that they’re cruel. Even the side characters are just kind of obnoxious party crashers and TikTokers whose presence doesn’t add the laughs that the film wants it to. While it may be a more satisfying watch when taken in context with the previous two films in the series, the film doesn’t spark any joy when it stands on its own.
Sex and Skin: Two couples come close to having sex, but ultimately we just see some foreplay and kissing that doesn’t lead to anything else.
Parting Shot: Princess and Tumi, friends once again after fighting previously, sip drinks on the veranda. When the hot chef places some food in front of them and leaves, Princess gets up and follows him out, telling Tumi, “Life begins at 40!”
Memorable Dialogue: “I feel like I was running out of time for this big, imaginary life I should be living,” Princess tells Tumi when she laments that as she’s turning 40 and still feels empty. (Later, Princess and Tumi revisit this conversation the next day and Princess has magically reevaluated everything, telling Tumi, “My life is enough and I’m enough!”)
Our Call: SKIP IT. The drama and the characters in Happiness Is… often ring hollow, and while there’s some satisfaction in seeing some characters from the previous films in the series evolve, the film lacks both humor and any sort of real drama and just feels like an extended soap opera.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
