In 'Pursuit' of More

Routine is comforting. It can provide a sense of structure and security to life. Routine is also dull. Repetitive even.  It can only be sustained for so long before something has to change. And depending how long you wait, that change could be pretty intense. 

For Hector (Simon Pegg), the minutiae of his day-to-day life reaches a peak when it collides head first into the inane squabbling of his therapy patients. His patients test, well, they test his patience.  In a healthy relationship with Clara (Rosamund Pike), who works marketing for a major pharmaceutical, Hector struggles to find a common ground between his unhappy patients and himself. Which sends Hector on the film's central conceit - the pursuit of happiness. 

Without any consultation, Hector informs Clara that he will be taking off, for an undetermined length of time. Clara is not sure how it take this, but decides to let him go and "find happiness."  First stop is China, where on the plane he meets a wealthy businessman Edward (Stellan Skarsgard).  Edward has no problems showing Hector a, rather cliched, 'good time.'  Debauchery ensues and while events don't get that crazy, the film spends the rest of it's running time (which is about fifteen minutes too long) continually trying to one up itself. Once it gets to the comparatively low key climax, you wish the rest of the film had kept with that restrained tone. About half way through the film Hector is kidnapped by warlords in Africa. Didn't make that up. 

Director Peter Chelsom, along with screenwriters Maria Von Heland and Tinker Lindsay, clearly had an important statement to make about happiness and what makes us happy, yet the end result was surface level at best. Throughout the film Hector jots down notes in his journal, thoughts on happiness that arise out of his experiences. While amusing, most are no-brainers that we've all read/thought before. Though competently directed, some of the scenarios Hector is put through are a bit extreme and far fetched.  And also unnecessary. Hector and the Pursuit of Happiness could have been a delightfully meditative travelogue, but instead is a rather generic, overly anxious film eager to say so much more than it does. In fact, some of the best scenes are flashbacks of Hector as a child, which are much calmer and more fluid in tone then the rest of the film.  The cast, rounded out by Toni Colette as Hector's old crush, are all wonderful and add the appropriate amount of fun and charisma this film needs. And while the film is enjoyable, you can't help but wonder what else it could have been if it only decided to go below the surface of what the audience already knows.