Hector and the Search for Happiness

Hector and the Search for Happiness (2016)

Genres - Drama, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Travel  |   Sub-Genres - Adventure Comedy  |   Release Date - Sep 19, 2014 (USA - Limited), Oct 3, 2014 (USA)  |   Run Time - 114 min.  |   Countries - Brazil, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Jason Buchanan

Eccentric psychiatrist Hector (Simon Pegg) decides travel the world on a mission to find out what makes people happy after growing convinced that his stagnant, routine-obsessed existence is preventing him from truly helping his patients in this whimsical, soul-searching comedy-drama. Hector is an esteemed psychiatrist whose relationship with his career-driven girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike) is one of complete predictability. For a while this arrangement offers Hector a reassuring sense of comfort and security, though in time he begins to realize that he might not be getting the most out of life, and begins to question what it is that makes people genuinely happy. When Hector's increasing irritability begins to threaten his relationships with his patients, he decides to take a sabbatical, and get out of his comfort zone. In doing so, surmises Hector, he can gain greater insight into his own needs as well as the needs of his patients. Discomforted by his decision yet supportive of his yearning for greater life experience, Clara wishes Hector well as she sends him on the first leg of his globe-trotting adventure. And what an adventure it is; from his initial stop in Shanghai, where a wealthy financier (Stellan SkarsgÄrd) showers him with the spoils of affluence, to his visit with Tibetan monks, his turbulent trip through Africa, and attempt to find closure to a past romance in L.A., Hector gradually discovers the answer to his existential questions, and so much more. Toni Collette, Jean Reno, and Christopher Plummer co-star.

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Keywords

adventure, Africa, China, courage, eccentric, financier, girlfriend, happiness, mission [quest], psychiatrist, quest, search