Another Happy Day
Winner of the Sundance Film Festival's prestigious Screenwriting Award, ANOTHER HAPPY DAY is the feature film debut of writer and director Sam Levinson. The film is a powerful, darkly comic story of a woman struggling to find her place in a volatile family dynamic and features an outstanding ensemble cast led by Ellen Barkin who also produced. A family weekend is fraught with emotional landmines for mercurial and sensitive Lynn (Barkin) as she arrives at her parents' Annapolis estate for the marriage of her estranged eldest son Dylan (Michael Nardelli), accompanied by her three younger children (Ezra Miller, Kate Bosworth, Daniel Yelsky). Lynn's hopes for a joyful reunion are crushed as her wry but troubled middle son Elliot (Ezra Miller) lobs verbal grenades at his mother and her relatives while daughter Alice (Kate Bosworth), a fights valiantly to keep her longtime demons under control. The weekend quickly unravels as Lynn demands to be heard by her aloof, disdainful mother (Ellen Burstyn), ailing, distant father (George Kennedy) and ever-judgmental sisters (Siobhan Fallon, Diana Scarwid), but most especially by her ex-husband Paul (Thomas Hayden Church) and his hot-tempered second wife Patty (Demi Moore). Confronted, oftentimes hilariously, with the deeply painful, half-buried truths that have given rise to the family's primal web ofresentments and recriminations, Lynn struggles to maintain her equilibrium as her best attempts at reconciliation veer quickly off-course. (Source)
A family weekend is fraught with emotional landmines for mercurial and sensitive Lynn as she arrives at her parents' Annapolis estate for the marriage of her estranged eldest son Dylan, accompanied by her three younger children. Lynn's hopes for a joyful reunion are crushed as her wry but troubled middle son Elliot lobs verbal grenades at his mother and her relatives while daughter Alice, a fights valiantly to keep her longtime demons under control. The weekend quickly unravels as Lynn demands to be heard by her aloof, disdainful mother, ailing, distant father and ever-judgmental sisters, but most especially by her ex-husband Paul and his hot-tempered second wife Patty. Confronted with the deeply painful, half-buried truths that have given rise to the family's primal web of resentments and recriminations, Lynn struggles to maintain her equilibrium as her best attempts at reconciliation veer quickly off-course. (Source)
A wedding brings together one very dysfunctional family in this dark comedy. Lynn (Ellen Barkin) was married to Paul (Thomas Haden Church), but they split up on bad terms, and Lynn took custody of their daughter Alice (Kate Bosworth) while Paul got their son Dylan (Michael Nardelli). Years later, now that Dylan is getting married, Lynn is attending the wedding at Paul's estate, with her younger sons Elliott (Ezra Miller) and Ben (Daniel Yelsky) in tow; Elliott is a chronically depressed drug addict and Ben prefers to look at life through a camera than confront the world head on. Meanwhile, Alice deals with her anxieties through cutting, Dylan hasn't spoken to Lynn in years, Lynn is fearful of Paul and his wife Patty (Demi Moore), Lynn's mother (Ellen Burstyn) blames her daughter for her family's many troubles, and her father (George Kennedy) is in poor health and hardly cares what's happening around him. To the surprise of no one, all this has left Lynn an emotional wreck, and she's not sure just how she's going to get through the day. Another Happy Day was the first feature film from writer and director Sam Levinson, and received its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. - Mark Deming, Rovi (Source)
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