All Happy Families starts with an up-close-and-personal look inside some decaying pipes. Aspiring actor-writer Graham (Josh Radnor) is trying to work out why his basement flooded, and pessimistic plumber Phil (Antoine McKay) informs him that replacements will cost upwards of 10 grand. His day does not get better from here.
Graham is living in his childhood home, funded by his older brother's successful sitcom career, trying to rent out the ground floor as a flat. After meeting potential tenant Dana (Chandra Russell), who he realises is an old college friend, the sudden arrival of his self-obsessed older brother Will (Rob Huebel) and a visit from his recently-retired mother Sue (Becky Ann Baker) and grouchy father Roy (Jon Ashton) bring up any number of familial tensions old and new.
The dynamics of the quartet are well-established tropes; the doted-on first child, the stoner second son, an emotionally insensitive father who keeps saying the wrong thing, and a big-hearted mother who tries to keep them all together. Luckily, the cast is compelling enough to keep it from feeling too stale, with the lived-in antagonism between Graham and Will grounded.
It's no simple family drama, though. This is a film that tries to cram a lot into its short runtime, from gender relations to addiction, trans identities to rom-com set pieces.
Based on allocated screen time alone, it could be argued that the focus of this film is sexual assault—although the topic is never explored quite enough for that to be true. Incidents occur and questions of what counts as justice and who gets to determine when it has been done are toyed with, as are ideas of victim blaming and general chauvinistic machismo, yet the film struggles to actually make a point about any of it. The most it dares to say is that, actually, sexual harassment and assault is bad. True, but not very ground-breaking.
Tonally, All Happy Families is all over the place. That's not always to its detriment, though, with the initial set-up of a family comedy becoming a lot knottier in a way that feels genuine to life. In a similar way, the ending is conclusive for some plotlines but not others – frustrating, maybe, but perhaps more realistic than the Judd Apatow-esque family slice-of-life films that have become emblematic of this genre.
One of the few plot points that is fully wrapped up is one of the least interesting: the romance between Graham and Dana. Despite strong performances from the two, and a decent enough premise, there's never a spark between the pair that makes their will-they won't-they, should-they shouldn't-they dance very interesting. The most heartfelt relationship in the story is that between Sue and her granddaughter Evie (Ivy O'Brien), who has recently come out as transgender. Sue's immediate acceptance, sensitivity to the subject and complete love of Evie is a nice counter to the classic narrative of generational divides in this space, and the two play off of each other nicely in their shared scenes.
Each of the characters feels lived-in enough to be believable, but with the overstuffed plot they don't have all that much space to breathe. Maybe this would have worked best as a series, with all narrative threads and character work able to really develop. Will's balance of egotism, manipulativeness and self-doubt is compelling to watch, but just isn't able to get very far in the space.
All Happy Families is an engaging watch, with appealing visuals once you get past the opening scene. Performances are compelling, storylines are interesting, and there's a good balance of humour and heft. However, by trying to do too much with too little time, it falls a little short of the mark and struggles to voice anything it may want to say.
All Happy Families is in cinemas 14 March from Bulldog Film Distribution
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