MOVIES: Happy Endings (Don Roos, 2005)

Another in the seemingly endless stream of movies in which Los Angeles is populated by ten people, who keep running into one another in a remarkable series of coincidences. I happen to be a sucker for such things, and this one is very well written and acted by a fine ensemble cast.

Lisa Kudrow is Mamie, who gave up a child for adoption 20 years ago, though her family believes she had an abortion. Now she's being blackmailed by Nicky (Jesse Bradford), who wants to make a documentary about her reunion with her child, thinking that it will be his ticket to film school.

The father of that child was Mamie's stepbrother, Charley (Steve Coogan), who now lives with his architect boyfriend, Gil (David Sutcliffe), and manages the last of his father's chain of tacky steakhouses (having run the rest into the ground). Gil and Charley are close friends with Pam and Diane (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke), and doting "uncles" to the womens' son, Max; Gil had at one point been considered as a possible sperm donor for their child.

And then there's Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who seduces Otis (Jason Ritter) before moving on to his father, Frank (Tom Arnold).

The performances are all solid here, but Lisa Kudrow is especially good, playing a sad and lonely woman who can't seem to make a real connection to anyone. In a pleasant surprise, Tom Arnold does the best acting of his career as Frank, who is probably the most decent and good-hearted character in the movie.

The movie's major stylistic twist is the frequent use of title cards to comment on the action and fill in the background of the characters. In the first scene, we see a character hit by a car; as she lies in the street, bleeding, the titles appear: "Don't worry, she's not dead. No one dies in this movie, at least not onscreen. It's a comedy, sort of." This device is overdone a bit by the end of the movie, and is generally more effective when it's used to fill us in on backstory, less effective when it's explaining emotional states that the actors should be providing for us.

And the coincidental meetings of the characters do stretch the limits of credulity. When Mamie and Jude meet, it's at least somewhat plausible, given the careers and circumstances they find themselves in, but when Mamie and Frank run into one another later in the movie, even the most patient among us are likely to react with an "oh, come on!". But a few implausibilities go with the territory in this sort of story, and with writing this sharp and funny, and a cast this talented, that's a very small price to pay.