Happy Ever Afters Review

Happy Ever Afters
Irish single mother Maura (Hawkins) is planning to marry an immigrant for cash, but a farcical series of events pull her and another groom (Riley) together.

by Anna Smith |
Published on
Release Date:

19 Mar 2010

Running Time:

101 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Happy Ever Afters

TWO IRISH WEDDINGS COLLIDE IN this would-be farce starring Happy-Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins.

She’s Maura, a single mother marrying an immigrant for cash. Meanwhile Freddie (Tom Riley) is having his wedding reception in the same hotel. A series of contrived accidents bring Maura and Freddie together: fire alarms go off, brides go missing and Freddie keeps getting hit in the face.

Unfortunately, Riley doesn’t have the kind of physicality to pull off this slapstick humour, and neither he nor Hawkins maintain convincing Irish accents. Hints of Hawkins’ natural talent still come through, though, and there are moments of decent observational comedy. But when this aims for farce, it misses hard.

This has the raw materials for an enjoyable culture-clash lark — they’re just scattered all over the place and never come together.

This has the raw materials for an enjoyable culture-clash lark — they’re just scattered all over the place and never come together.
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