Happiness for Beginners (2023)

Happiness for Beginners is the kind of warm, quietly confident romantic dramedy that sneaks up on you—not with grand twists, but with the satisfying feeling of watching someone relearn how to live in their own skin. Ellie Kemper makes Helen instantly worth rooting for, bringing a lived-in vulnerability to the comedy, while the hiking-course ensemble creates an easy camaraderie that feels like real people sharing blisters, bad jokes, and small breakthroughs. The vibe is gentle and outdoorsy, with enough emotional honesty to give the laughs some weight and enough sweetness to make the romance feel earned rather than forced. It’s not a reinvention of the genre, and if you need sharp edge or big surprises you may find it familiar—but if you want a pleasant, well-crafted reset button of a movie, it’s a lovely walk to take.

Happiness for Beginners wants to be a gentle reset-button rom-com wrapped in an outdoorsy “find yourself” journey, and you can feel it aiming for comfort over surprise. The problem is it plays so safely that the character growth and romance hit familiar beats long before the trail gets interesting, leaving the whole thing a bit bland and lightweight for a story about rebuilding your life. Ellie Kemper’s likability and the hiking-group camaraderie do provide a pleasant, low-stress watch, and the scenery helps sell the escape. If you’re craving sharp comedy, real emotional bite, or a self-discovery story with any edge, this will probably feel too mild and predictable—but if you want something inoffensive to half-watch, it’ll do the job.