Happy Anniversary

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On their third anniversary, Sam and Mollie realize the biggest excitement of their lives is pushing the limits of their garage door opener. Are they happy together or just habitually together? Either way, a couple who starts asking themselves that is bound to find some flaws.

So then we get to witness them fight and watch a long term relationship disintegrate because they’re just not sure. And I feel like I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately in which the couple just aren’t sure. When my grandparents got married, there was no ‘sure’. They were the same religion, their families didn’t hate each other, and they were inline_0000s_0001_happy-anniversary18 and probably horny. So they got married, and thanks to the religious belief in never, ever getting divorced, they’re still together today. When my parents got married, there was no ‘sure’. He thought she was pretty and she thought he’d be a good provider so they waited for her to turn 18 and married. That was enough. Today, there’s no telling what’s good enough, or even if good enough is good enough.

Sam (Ben Schwartz) and Mollie (Noël Wells) are practically the every-couple. Whether or not you find them funny probably depends on how secure you are in your relationship. I sure found it relatable, sometimes embarrassingly so. But that’s what love is: baring your worst self to someone else and hoping they don’t leave you. We’re all assholes. Finding someone who will put up with it feels like a kind of miracle.

I’ve rarely seen Schwartz in non-obnoxious mode. I didn’t even realize he was capable. It’s kind of nice. And Sam and Mollie are kind of cute together, in a way that makes you want to pull for them, even when it feels like the wrong horse to bet on. Flashbacks reveal both the good times and the bad – because no relationship has ups without downs. Perfection is a fallacy, although it’s exactly that kind of perfection that’s usually sold in rom-coms: guys who aren’t afraid of intimacy, who don’t struggle to communicate, who convey their passion with grand, romantic gestures. But Happy Anniversary is the kind of rom-com we need: one that teaches us to value the idiosyncrasies that make a couple special, perfectly imperfect for each other. “Knowing” is hard. Trusting is hard. Having in faith in someone else is hard. Forever is hard. So good fucking luck.

10 thoughts on “Happy Anniversary”

    1. Jay Post author

      I know, haha, I felt the same. Also: perhaps the reason you hadnt heard of it is that I was calling it by the wrong name – it’s actually Happy Anniversary, and it’s new on Netflix.

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  2. Carrie Rubin

    I like when a movie shows relationships more realistically than romantic comedies do, so maybe I’ll have to check this one out. Of course, I say that with so many shows that my to-be-watched list is almost as long as my to-be-read list!

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  3. Katrina Morrison

    I love that you refer to one of the relationship bonds as the “Perfectly imperfect for each other.” Those odd shapes of our personalities the fit like a puzzle piece. That strange quirk that matches someone else’s imperfection. 😂 Perfectly said Jay👍🏼 This rom-com sounds honest…definitely worth a watch.

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  7. Birgit

    I love your last line…hahahaaaaa! I have not heard of this film but I think people need to chill and stop looking for perfection because it does not exist. If reality was shown, one would see us with flab, dressed in sweats watching tv. If you lay in bed, there is snoring and farting….marital bliss

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  8. Liz A.

    You have to choose each other each and every day. Even the bad days. As someone who is perpetually single, I don’t think I should see this movie.

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