“Once upon a time there was a young psychiatrist called Hector. His world was uncomplicated. He took great comfort in its predictable patterns. Patterns his girlfriend Clara was happy to maintain.”

“Hector and the Search for Happiness” is about a British therapist who decides he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.

Hector has been spending his life trying to make people happy and it dawns on him he doesn’t have a clue what happiness is.

He decides then and there to go on a worldwide hunt for the true meaning of happiness – with the full support of his longtime girlfriend.

“If you’re going to do this, make it worthwhile, really,” says Hector’s girlfriend.

I wish he had taken her advice a little more seriously because there’s absolutely nothing “worthwhile” in his subsequent adventure. He travels to China, the Himalayas, Africa, and Los Angeles and the funny thing is
the longer his search for happiness goes on, the more unhappy the audience gets.

His naivete is so ridiculously overdrawn that it’s frustrating to watch him keep doing dumb stuff.

He takes up with a beautiful Chinese call girl who turns out, much to his surprise, to be a beautiful Chinese call girl. In Africa, he befriends a vicious drug lord and is surprised when he’s kidnapped, tortured, and threatened with death by a rival druglord. In Los Angeles, he tracks down an old flame and is surprised to find she’s married with kids and won’t run off with him.

If that sounds like this movie is all over the map not just geographically but tonally, you’re right. This guy is a mess and so is this movie. What it all has to do with happiness is practically an afterthought, something to do with, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

“Hector and the Search for Happiness” is a comedy that’s not funny, a drama that’s not dramatic, and a psychological study that’s as deep as a Hallmark card.

The true meaning of happiness, it turns out, is skipping this movie.