'Another Happy Day' review

Ellen Barkin (Credit: Phase 4 Films)

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["Another Happy Day" premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The following is an excerpt from Metromix's coverage of the festival.]

One of the few true failures I've seen in the festival's U.S. dramatic competition lineup, "Another Happy Day" wastes one of the strongest ensembles at Sundance. Ellen Barkin stars as a woman forced to face her dysfunctional family at the wedding of her oldest son.

The oversized brood includes her strong-willed mother (Ellen Burstyn), dementia-suffering father (George Kennedy), mentally troubled drug addict son (Ezra Miller), depressed daughter (Kate Bosworth), selfish ex-husband (Thomas Haden Church) and his floozy of a new wife (Demi Moore). That's a lot of talent stuck in limited variations of miserable, unlikable characters.

Everything that happens in "Another Happy Day" involves family members treating each other terribly, and writer-director Sam Levinson can't manage to give their actions any more depth or credibility than the average soap opera. Barkin is on the verge of tears in every other scene and Miller proves especially annoying as one of those sarcastic indie teens whose smug superiority is meant to be amusing but really just grates. Even if you can relate because you're unlucky enough to have a family like this, why would you want to watch a movie about it?

Follow Metromix's Geoff Berkshire on Twitter: @geoffberkshire