Happy Face review: A group of strangers connects over shared anxiety in this people-affirming tale of friendship.
Image Courtesy of Clout Communications
Stan (Robin L’Houmeau) is struggling to come to terms with his mother’s facial disfigurement. In an effort to understand her situation and to connect with her more, he begins attending a support group for people with similar afflictions. These conditions range from being overweight like group leader Vanessa, to burn victims, to people who were born with disfigurements; all of them have conditions that have seen them shunned by society. After being unveiled as an impostor, Stan begins to try and help this group of wayward souls and in doing so gets their help in return.
If Happy Face sounds like a warm-hearted tale of people finding friendship in unexpected places, that’s because it is. Is the fact that it has just screened at this year’s Frightfest a little confusing? The answer is maybe. Typically, Frightfest is all about films that embrace and celebrate the dark heart of cinema. Happy Face doesn’t really have a dark heart, although our society’s reaction to the group of kooky personalities is bleak. So maybe it fits in from that perspective. The film is a shining beacon amongst all of the other films in the line-up, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air and lightness, a palate cleanser if you will.
What makes Happy Face so special is that it embraces its cast and their conditions. The film could have so easily just slapped some make-up or prosthetics on another group of actors, but there’s none of that here. These people are the genuine article, with at least a couple of members of the cast’s character’s situations mirroring that of their own. It’s just a massive shame that we’ve had to wait until 2019 for a film that embraces society’s ‘outsiders’.
A charming tale that affirms that it is the soul that makes you beautiful, not your outward appearance. Happy Face is the perfect film to watch when you want the evils of the world to disappear for a little while.
Happy Face was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
