"Happily" a deliciously sharp black comedy that goes where you least expect

Happily (2021)

Tom (Joel McHale) and Janet (Kerry Bishé) look like the happiest couple in the world. They have sex every chance they get—even if that means getting in a quickie during a party—and never argue. Because their 14-year-long marriage seems so impossibly perfect, their friends resent them. In fact, unhappily married couple friends Karen (Natalie Zea) and Val (Paul Scheer) are so fed up that they disinvite Tom and Janet to their couples weekend and return their deposit. Writer-director BenDavid Grabinski’s “Happily” uses marital bliss as just the launching-off pad for his stylish filmmaking debut, a devious black comedy that might fall into science fiction, horror, both, or neither.

Billed as a romantic “Twilight Zone” with a pleasing soundtrack of deep-cut ‘80s disco and electropop, “Happily” zigzags when it comes to expectations. The morning after their weekend plans are canceled, Tom and Janet are visited at their door by a man (Stephen Root) with a briefcase. The couple is nearly forced to let him in, and he promises them normalcy and financial backing. It’s like “The Box” without a button to push; instead, the couple is instructed to give themselves each a serum shot to normalize their marriage so they can bicker and have less sex. Plans change when Janet reacts violently. Right at the most opportune time, Tom and Janet are re-invited for the weekend by their friends’ change of heart, and getting out of town seems like the best option. Upon their arrival, the high-energy Patricia (Natalie Morales) is the most excited to see them, while Patricia’s surly writer husband Donald (Jon Daly) couldn’t be bothered floating in the pool and downing beers, and lesbian power couple Carla (Shannon Woodward) and Maude (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) try to play nice. Later, Karen and Val arrive with unhappy couple Richard (Breckin Meyer) and Gretel (Charlyne Yi). With Tom and Janet already paranoid and on edge, it's not until Janet gladly makes a liquor run that she realizes her and Tom's secret won’t stay dead for the “killer weekend.” 

There’s always something mysterious and off-kilter about “Happily,” throwing the viewer and the characters off-balance as if we're all here to be tested. BenDavid Grabinski strikes such an arch tone that's specific but hard to pin down; he has a way of being playful and delving into the metaphysical but still making the danger feel tangible. Surreal flourishes include recurring dream sequences and canted camera angles, but there’s even a random reference to the movie “Stealth” (yes, the 2005 “Top Gun” rip-off that no one remembers until it’s mentioned by one of the characters). And, as soon as Stephen Root shows up as a character named “Goodman,” we know things aren't meant to be conventional. Leading the way as Tom and Janet, Joel McHale (2020’s “Becky”) and Kerry Bishé (2017’s “Rupture”) are charming and sexy together, like the couple everyone hates for being so damn perfect. McHale seems to have been to the gym, and the beautiful Bishé brings an endearing quality to Janet when she panics in high-stress situations. Grabinski’s script might only allow the remaining four couples a few traits apiece—the normally likable Breckin Meyer barely even says a word as Richard and gets to play a reprehensible P.O.S.—but the cast is so deliciously sharp anyway that one actually enjoys spending time in a house with these friends who probably shouldn’t be friends. 

Those expecting a traditional mystery narrative out of “Happily” may say the story walks itself into a corner with nowhere to go, but this is arguably the point. Wisely, Grabinski keeps things just ambiguous enough but reveals his characters in more relatable ways. Every couple is flawed with its own insecurities, secrets, and resentments, and being tested by an outside force might do them all some good. Of course, in the movies, everything bubbles to the surface over one weekend, just in time for the weirdest intervention among friends. Some of the couples will be stronger for facing their truths, and others will have to just call it quits. All at once, the finale manages to be strange, rueful, bitterly funny, shockingly violent, and joyous. Guess as hard as you want, but “Happily” goes where you least expect and goes there with bite.

Grade: B

Saban Films is releasing “Happily” (95 min.) in theaters, on digital & on demand March 19, 2021.