The film is based on a popular novel by French psychiatrist François Lelord, Le voyage d'Hector ou la recherche du bonheur ("Hector's Voyage or the Search for Happiness"), a thought-provoking book on the psychology of happiness, written for laypeople.
The film seems like it might be a bit... mushy... and director Peter Chelsom certainly has a record of feel good fare with the likes of The Mighty, Serendipity, the Richard Gere-starring remake of Shall We Dance? and, wait for it, Hannah Montana: The Movie to his credit.
However, the cast in this includes the likes of Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike, Stellan Skarsgard, Jean Reno and Christopher Plummer, and frankly anything starring Pegg is worth a look. The delightfully cheesy sound gag accompanying his declaration of travel to China, or the French madame waxing on about the intangibility of "a-penis" suggests this might just be the type of quirky comedy that let's Pegg shine.
I hope so. Those are the best.
Hector (Simon Pegg) is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike), he feels like a fraud: he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results. Based on the world-wide best-selling novel of the same name, Hector and the Search for Happiness is a rich, exhilarating, and hilarious tale from director Peter Chelsom, starring Simon Pegg, Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike, Stellan Skarsgard, Jean Reno and Christopher Plummer.