Director Don Roos is a fan of ensemble comedy. His most successful (The Opposite of Sex) was a bright, bitter pill that hit all the comedic marks. Fond of a good formula, he’s found another, lightly connected group to tell another bright story of emotional misfits, reflecting his acerbic take on life, love and fate. Happy Endings is modern, sexy and full of a healthy disregard for the plight of its characters (see ‘modern’). It also requires something of its audience, mental agility foremost as ten characters bounce around three stories over several years.

It starts with a sexually active step-brother and finishes with a car accident; sort of. To help you stay within the lines, Roos’ voice-of-God appears as quirky title cards, helpfully filling in the blanks. There are lesbian mothers, gay fathers, gay sons, lost sons, Mexican masseurs, blackmailing filmmakers, gold-diggers and one bored pregnancy counsellor. Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Josh Ritter and Tom Arnold are great value, cemented by yet another blinding appearance by Maggie Gyllenhaal at the film’s emotional heart.

Derivative? Yes. Convoluted? Certainly. Forgivable? Largely. As so much of Happy Endings is very funny - like a blunt version of Hal Hartley – it’s easy to be swept along by Roos’ sweetly vicious sentiment, troublesome characters and crackling script. But the low-fat nature of these ideas can’t fully sustain a film that takes too long to get to its own happy (or otherwise) endings. Roos rambles like a gossipy friend who doesn’t know when to stop. Yet like that gossipy friend, he’s great fun to hang out with.

// COLIN FRASER