H IS FOR HAPPINESS
Australia, 2019, 98 minutes, Colour.
Daisy Axon, Richard Roxburgh, Miriam Margolyes, Emma Booth, Joel Jackson, Deborah Mailman, Wesley Patten, Alessandra Tognini, George Shevtsov.
Directed by John Sheedy.
While searching for a word to give an indication of how H is for Happiness affects the audience, a fellow critic remarked that it was “whimsical�. And that is definitely the word.
The question does arise as to who is the intended target audience. With a 12 year old boy and girl at the centre, definitely for that age group, lower secondary, older primary. Maybe not older teenagers who think they might be beyond that stage of life. However, many a parent will enjoy it making allowances for the whimsy, then entering into it.
Audiences don’t often see a film made in Albany, Western Australia. Here is an excellent opportunity, the town, the sea and the islands, the surrounding forest, the old buildings from the 19th century, and life in the 21st-century.
At the centre of the film, and responsible for a lot of the whimsy, is a 12-year-old girl called Candice, redhead, an extraordinary number of freckles on her face, ultra-studious, extensive vocabulary in her voice-over, telling her story, of her parents, of her sister who died in cot death, more than conscientious in her responses in class (to the irritation of fellow classmates, including a couple of bullies), wanting to fix everything, especially with her parents, her grieving mother, her father who has clashed in business with his brother, reconciliation all round.
She is played with conviction a and a great deal of self-assurance by Daisy Axon. A persuasive performance.
In fact, there is a very strong supporting cast including Richard Roxburgh as Candice’s father, Emma Booth as her mother, Joel Jackson as (Candice always referring to him as this) Rich Uncle Brian. And there is Miriam Margolyes as the class teacher (with an extraordinary rolling eye) and Deborah Mailman as the mother of the little boy, Douglas (quite a charming performance from Wesley Patten), who has had a fall from a tree with the consequence that he thinks he is from another planet (from among many) who is devoted to Candice (even proposing) and whom she always refers to as Douglas Benson from Another Dimension!
So, plenty of plot details. All the story of Candice’s attempts to encourage her mother in her grief, to reconcile her father with her Rich Uncle Brian. Plot details with the school work, the task of preparing for presentations to the parents, urged by Miriam Marglyes Miss Bamford, each of the children taking a letter of the alphabet for their presentation. Needless to say, the conscientious Candice enlightens the audience with all kinds of possibilities for each letter of the alphabet.
There are many unexpected complications but audiences will be delighted in Candice’s and Douglas’s final presentation, a tribute to win over her parents, remembering her mother’s love for Nashville, Candice and Douglas, with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers wigs, lip-syncing Islands in the Stream.
How else could there be anything else but happy ending!
1. Title? The alphabet life?
2. A film for young teenagers, for parents?
3. The setting, Albany, Western Australia, the towns and the views, the sea, the wind farms, the forest, homes, school, classrooms? The musical score?
4. Candace’s story? The performance by Daisy Axon? Confident? Direct? Her freckles? In class, conscientious, more than conscientious? The irritation for the other students? Jen Marshall and her friends, the bullying? Keen student, reading the dictionary every night, her vocabulary? Her explanation of her parents, her father, working with Rich Uncle Brian, the falling out, the enmity? Her father at home, working on formulae? The death of her sister, the explanation of cot death? Her mother reclusive and grieving? Her going to visit Brian? His gift of the bike?
5. The parents, the tension between them, their grief? The glimpse of the past, Country and Western music? The mother and her desire to go to Nashville? Candace, wanting to reconcile her family, memories of her sister, Brian and the trust fund, the money for the tickets for Nashville and the spending? Her parents’ negative reaction?
6. Miss Bamford, teaching, her roving eye, Candice’s comments, buying her the eyepatch, Miss Bamford laughing? The school assignment? The letters of the alphabet? Miss Bamford absent, the ultra-severe teacher and her supervision and demands? The pairs for the assignment, Candace and Jen paired, in the library? Miss Bamford to return, the surgery on her long?
7. Candice and the letters of the alphabet, her illustrating each of them, comic touches?
8. Rich Uncle Brian, money, the luxury yacht, taking Candice to sea, her being sick – three times?
9. The arrival of Douglas Benson, his wanting to confide his secret, following Candice, telling her his theory about the many dimensions, her referring to him as Douglas Benson from Another Dimension? His drawing the testseract? His comments about his mother? Inviting Candice to the meal, the mother thinking she was autistic, the fruit? Douglas and his plan for gravity,? To leap from the tree, his attempts? Candice wanting to stop him? Her cycling into the forest? The small horse and her bonding with it, the
apples? Douglas and his fall, to hospital? His mother and her concern?
10. Candice and the birthday meal in the restaurant, Jim and his gift of the star for their dead daughter, his wife’s negative reaction? Candice and her gift for Nashville?
11. Candice organising lunch with her father, Brian turning up, the animosity
12. Douglas, invited to the meal, his proposal, showing Jim his design, Jim ‘n is working on the computer – and the final reconciliation with Brian helping him with the project?
13. Candice, feeling glum? Miss Bamford and the parents and the presentations? The alphabet?
14. Candice, her parents not present, her speech, abandoning it, going behind a curtain, she and Douglas as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Islands in the Stream, audience response, the children in the class, Jen Marshall?
15. Douglas and his explanation that he had gone to the other dimensions but had decided to come back because of his love for Candice?
16. A piece of entertaining Australian whimsy?
