Hector and the Search for Happiness

A psychiatrist (Simon Pegg), worried that his cozily regimented life with his girlfriend (Rosamund Pike) insulates him too much from knowing what real happiness is, embarks on a world tour, taking notes as he goes, to investigate the concept—not to find happiness so much as simply to learn what it is. The script by Maria von Heland, Tinker Lindsay and director Peter Chelsom (from a novel by François Lelord) wanders almost as much as the hero. It uses its changes of exotic scenery to cover its essential banality; this guy goes to a lot of trouble and danger just to jot down some slogans he could have gotten from reading a few dozen fortune cookies. What saves it is Pegg's sweet, poignant performance and the strong supporting cast—Stellan Skarsgård, Jean Reno, Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer.