Review for Not Another Happy Ending

As a writer, I know all about writer's block and this film starring the gorgeous Karen Gillan should be right up my street. But it's not. Not Another Happy Ending is a painful film which if it wasn't for the presence of Gillan would be almost unwatchable.

Jane Lockhart (Gillan) is a writer who after many many rejections of her first novel finally has it picked up by a small publisher run by Tom (Stanley Weber). Published, she becomes a critical and commercial success with everyone waiting for the second novel.

Getting to the final chapter she gets blocked and with Tom's company relying on the novel he must push her along to finish it. His idea? Make her miserable so that she can catch the melancholic lightning that made the first book such a success. However, then he discovers just how much he is in love with her.

This film is almost every British Romcom cliche that has ever been made. There's the love triangle, the cheeky friend (who is far more entertaining than the main characters), the unrequited love, the misunderstanding of the two and the eventual realisation that despite all their flaws they are made for each other.

I will say again that if Karen Gillan wasn't in this film I probably wouldn't have made it through. The plot was inane, the cinematography at times felt like a 'welcome to Scotland' advert and the countless sappy songs throughout were no substitute for actual emotion within the film. Weber as Tom was painful and though I'm sure he actually was French his accent was so bad I wasn't sure whether it was just bad acting or not. His character was 2D and made me want to scream at his pointlessness.

Amy Manson as Darsie the character from Jane's book who only she can see is almost an interesting idea and if that had been the main plot of the character stalking her then they might have had something. In a way this reminded me of Stranger Than Fiction, but it's just another element of the film never developed enough to make any sense.

Iain De Caestecker as Tom's friend Roddy probably had the only highlights with him constantly teaching his school class stuff that was so wrong it was hard not to smile such as Shakespeare's attempts to make it big on Broadway or Emily Bronte creating the hovercraft. Sadly, that's almost where the highlights of the film end.

Gillan is as competent and likeable as she was in Doctor Who and when fanboys read "nude scene" they will probably flock to this film for that alone. The scene is reminiscent of John Cleese's infamous strip from A Fish Called Wanda only that was funny. Though no doubt the Gillan obsessed will watch the whole sequence on super slow motion and swear that they can see something. (Note: You can't.)

Not Another Happy Ending could almost have been the title of a spoof film like Not Another Teen Movie. The film is your typical romantic comedy and if you are a fan of anything Richard Curtis has done then you might enjoy it. But don't blame me if you are surprised by how decidedly average this film is.