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Happiness for Beginners

Happiness for Beginners

Romance · Adventure · Comedy · 2023

At a crossroads after her divorce, a schoolteacher ventures toward a fresh start in life — and love — when she signs up for a grueling group hiking trip.

Movie details

Happiness for Beginners

2023 Romance · Adventure · Comedy 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

21.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

35 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

48 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

At a crossroads after her divorce, a schoolteacher ventures toward a fresh start in life — and love — when she signs up for a grueling group hiking trip.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Happiness for Beginners?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Vicky Wight

Written by

Vicky Wight

Ellie Kemper

Ellie Kemper

Helen Carpenter

Luke Grimes

Luke Grimes

Jake

Nico Santos

Nico Santos

Hugh

Blythe Danner

Blythe Danner

Gigi

Ben Cook

Ben Cook

Beckett

Shayvawn Webster

Shayvawn Webster

Windy

Julia Shiplett

Julia Shiplett

Sue

Court is in session

Put Happiness for Beginners on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.