Third entry in ‘Happiness’ trilogy seems unnecessary

FAITH MTWANA

Genre: Comedy, romance, drama

For some people, happiness means family, career, wealth, academic, or inner peace.

Happiness Is… focuses on one woman, as she deals with friendship, motherhood, career, love and turning 40.

Princess (Renate Stuurman) is a successful gallery owner and single mother, who feels unsatisfied with her life.

As her best friend, Tumi (Gail Mabalane) plans an epic 40th birthday party, Princess discovers that her baby daddy (whom she is still secretly in love with) is seeing someone, she decides to cancel the party and go away for some ‘alone time’.

Tumi ignores her friend’s request and instead changes the location of the party to where Princess has chosen to be alone.

Compared to its predecessors, Happiness is a Four-Letter Word (2016) and Happiness Ever After (2021), Happiness Is (2024) is the least captivating of the three films. It feels like the directors were forced to make this film, despite having no fresh new angle.

The cast is full is great performers like Siv Ngesi, Rosemary Zimu, Richard Lukunku and Anton Jeftha.

They all bring charm and entertainment, despite the predictable storyline.

The location is beautiful, the outfits are stylish and colourful, and the hair and makeup on the leading ladies is absolutely beautiful. The song choices are also good and complimentary for the scenes.

One of the most annoying aspects of the film is the emphasis on the main character turning 40, and yet every decision she and her friends make is childish and not at all the behaviour that a mature adult is supposed to have.

The film is a light, simple romantic-comedy with no real stakes, and with a runtime of one hour and 30 minutes, it is a an easy watch if you have nothing else going on.

Happiness Is… is available for streaming on Netflix.

FLIRTY AT FORTY: Renate Stuurman stars as Princess in the latest Netflix romantic comedy ‘Happiness Is…’. Picture: SUPPLIED

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