The Happy Man makes the film MORE than just a romantic comedy

Assuming of course that, like the general consensus, romantic comedies are considered less worthy than other genres for some ridiculous reason. Which I don't agree with at all.

Anyway, the character listed for the "Happy Man", played by Abdul Salaam El Razzac, is the most important character in the film, in my opinion.

"Are you freaking nuts?" you just replied.

"You are such a complete dumbass," said the trolls that were good at English in grade school.

"U r n idiot," said the rest of the trolls.

Hear me out, non-trolls.

Take him out of the film, and you get to justify the critics of this film (people that seem to think that this was based on a true story or something) that such a story is, to quote Data from STTNG, "highly improbable".

I grant you that the story, WITHOUT the Happy Man, is highly improbable.

WITH him, however, the story is HIGHLY PROBABLE. And he is what takes the film from GREAT to REALLY AWESOME.

Consider what he says. "Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't; but keep on dreamin' - this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'!" He says it in the very beginning of the movie, and not to anyone in particular. He's walking from left to right, with nobody else around.

That's because he's talking to YOU. The person watching the film.

When the movie's done, he suddenly appears again, doing the exact same thing, in the exact same way, except this time he has the black line behind his back, sweeping the film to the credits. He brings it in, tells you it's a dream, and takes it away, all the time reminding us that sometimes dreams do come true. And he's still talking to nobody. (Except you).

Okay it might be a little campy. But *beep* it. This is a MOVIE, after all. Miss those two (out of his only three) scenes, and you miss the real meat of the movie.

Don't believe me? SPOILER ALERT. In (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, if you miss the VERY LAST LINE of the movie, the whole thing falls apart. A friend of mine fell asleep and missed the line. I freaked out and woke her up. She asked me what the big deal was, that she wasn't sleeping, and that she liked the movie. I asked her what the final line was, and of course she couldn't remember. So I went back and played it again, making sure she was awake. When the girl says, "Autumn." my friend's eyes literally bulged, and she said, "Wow. That was amazing."

It was. And so is the Happy Man.

My thoughts: https://xanderpayne.blogspot.com
My book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G6OI7HG

You didn't come here to make the choice, you're here to understand why you made it.