Simon Pegg is someone who often succeeds wildly in making us smile, so it is a relief to see that the actor likes to smile, too. Moving away from the dark comedy A Fantastic Fear of Everything, the British comic will be hitting UK movie screens this fall in Hector and the Search for Happiness. The first trailer for the film has been released today and it looks like it hits the sweet spot without being too saccharine.
Hector and the Search for Happiness follows Pegg’s Hector, a glum psychiatrist who is just as depressed and uninspired as the patients he speaks with every week. He eventually finds the courage to pick himself up and travel across the world, trying to find the places and people that can turn his frown upside down. Among the ensemble he meets or rekindles a long-lost connection with are Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgård, Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer.
Hector and the Search for Happiness looks like a buoyant delight, a feel-good comedy that could actually make one feel good and laugh. The trailer is similar to the globe-trotting adventure The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, yet Pegg’s Hector seems like a more boisterous and interesting protagonist to center a story around. The comedy comes from director Peter Chelsom (Serendipity, Hannah Montana: The Movie) and is based on a novel from psychiatrist François Lelord.
The hopefulness and hilarity will unfortunately not be hitting North American screens in the near future, but a release in the UK is scheduled for this autumn. With a strong ensemble and an upbeat trailer, let us hope that Hector and the Search for Happiness finds its way onto our shores sometime in 2014.