If you ever get bored, open Netflix, go to the categories section in the main menu, and pick a random category to see what they offer you. It’s wild what they list some movies as. For example, here is Happiness For Beginners, listed as a romcom but with very little romance or comedy.

Helen (Ellie Kemper) is a schoolteacher who is having a bit of a life crisis. To get herself back on track, she signs up for a hiking trip on the Appalachain Trail. Little did she know that her younger brother’s best friend, Jake (Luke Grimes), is also on the trip. Can Helen find herself again? And will she find love on the way?

For a movie about hiking and camping and the wilderness, this was so boring. We’re supposed to read into Jake’s longing glances at Helen but, to be honest, she is kind of a bitch to him. She yells at him a lot…until she has to take charge of her sub-group after one of the members gets injured. Oh, and she finds out about Jake’s disability. A lot of the plot happens in conversations so we don’t actually see things happening. I did find out that the movie is based on a book…maybe that is why there is so much talking and so little hiking done.

At the end, I’m not really left caring about any of these characters. I didn’t care when someone got hurt. I didn’t care when Helen suddenly took charge. I didn’t care when Jake dropped his big disability bombshell. I wish I could say that I recommended Happiness because the actors are actually good. But they aren’t given anything to work with. Their cardboard characters could have been dropped anywhere and this would have been exactly the same. I’m sad this wasn’t better.

Rating: C