Happy Here and Now

R

Released Jun 8, 2002

1 hr. 29 min.

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

List

50%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

43%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

After Muriel (Shalom Harlow) goes missing, her sister Amelia (Liane Balaban) tries to track her down. Aided by Bill (Clarence Williams III), a family friend and former CIA agent, Amelia finds out that Muriel had been having a lengthy Internet correspondence with a local man named Eddie (David Arquette). Once Bill and Amelia locate Eddie, an eccentric exterminator, and his brother Tom (Karl Geary), they find themselves even farther from Muriel than before.

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Critics Consensus

Happy Here and Now has a rich setting and some interesting ideas, but the story frustratingly refuses to spark to life.

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StephenPaul C

The greatest 01 hour: and 29 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie was one of the worst I have ever seen. The computer camera in one scene had showing the girl and on the black and white CRT she was viewed as a rabbit. How sltupid that was. In one black and white flash back (I guess) the girl hugged something with its head covered with something that looked like a knitted hood. What was that? Thumb's DOWN on this movie! I would like to add that music was very good and the acting was good.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(*** 1/2): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] A strange but intriguing film.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Amelia has just arrived in New Orleans to find that her sister, Muriel, has gone missing without a trace. The only clue which Amelia has is a stranger who her sister chatted with online. Michael Almereya's film is a strange, interesting commentary on technologies influence on our identities and the isolation which it tends to cause. It's an interesting theme but the execution is not nearly as good as the idea. Its a very meditative flick, with the disappearance being the driving force of the story. I found the film to be too muddled throughout except for the last 10 minutes or so, which were more clear and concise. A film that definitely will make you think, but it could have been executed better.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An atmospheric film from New Orleans that explores the loss of identity we experience as technology encroaches, even to the point of mediating our relationships for us. Can we know people better if we have no opportunity to touch them? The film has a rather meditative quality about it, while the mystery of the central plot carries the characters along. The first and final sequences of the film are one of the best edited scenes I've seen in some time, a visual poem that create beautiful bookends.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Slow, mundane, don't care.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

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Michael Almereyda

Director

Karl Geary

Eddie Mars

Shalom Harlow

Muriel

Clarence Williams III

Bill

Ally Sheedy

Lois

Josephine Martin

Josephine

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David Hunter

Hollywood Reporter

The future is quieter, emotionally subdued and grayly mysterious, at least in the small hop forward imagined by filmmaker Michael Almereyda.

Dec 16, 2005

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

This is a droll, laid-back film noir steeped in Crescent City atmosphere and music that culminates in the colliding worlds of genuine and virtual reality.

Rated: 3.5/5

Dec 16, 2005

Full Review

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Michael Almereyda's muddled Happy Here and Now should have stayed on the shelf -- where it's been gathering dust for several years.

Rated: 1/4

Dec 16, 2005

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Strange but intriguing pic about alienation from the modern-day tech world.

Rated: B+

Jan 3, 2015

Full Review

Doris Toumarkine

Film Journal International

Murky and humorless.

Mar 1, 2007

Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

The film is resolutely committed to its affectations of deepness and meaningfulness, but all it imparts is a sense of tediousness.

Feb 8, 2006

Full Review

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Synopsis

After Muriel (Shalom Harlow) goes missing, her sister Amelia (Liane Balaban) tries to track her down. Aided by Bill (Clarence Williams III), a family friend and former CIA agent, Amelia finds out that Muriel had been having a lengthy Internet correspondence with a local man named Eddie (David Arquette). Once Bill and Amelia locate Eddie, an eccentric exterminator, and his brother Tom (Karl Geary), they find themselves even farther from Muriel than before.

Director: Michael Almereyda
Executive Producer: Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, Holly Becker, John Sloss
Screenwriter: Michael Almereyda
Production Co: IFC Productions, Keep Your Head
Rating: R (Some Language)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 8, 2002, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Dec 14, 2005
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 19, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.4K

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