Vague Visages’ All Happy Families review contains minor spoilers. Haroula Rose’s 2023 movie on Amazon features Josh Radnor, Chandra Russell and Rob Huebel. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Haroula Rose’s All Happy Families opens with the famously quoted Leo Tolstoy line that inspires its title: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This title is both a literary wink and a satirical jibe that sets the tone for the director’s sophomore film. All Happy Families is a bittersweet ensemble production that explores the everyday, quiet dramas of one eccentric Chicago family. The result is a charming and arguably over-ambitious comedy-drama stuffed with characters that leave a sincere impression all the same.

All Happy Families has an extensive cast, and yet each character leaves a lasting impression. Josh Radnor, best known for his sitcom days on How I Met Your Mother (2005-14), stars as Graham Landry and brings a wry weariness to the role of an underachieving actor stuck in career limbo. When the protagonist first appears, he’s elbow-deep in repairs on the crumbling Landry family home. This fixer-upper doubles as a slightly on-the-nose metaphor for the multigenerational family dynamics at play in Rose’s film. Still, Radnor smooths over this heavy-handedness with a familiar affability from his other roles. When Graham’s more successful older brother, Will (Rob Huebel), breezes into town from his gig on a popular TV drama, it sparks not just sibling rivalry but a full-blown emotional audit of the entire Landry family.

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Tom Carroll’s ‘The Stress Is Killing Me’

Radnor and Huebel stand out as a memorable couple in All Happy Families, especially as Graham can’t escape the shadow of his more successful sibling. Even when Radnor’s protagonist attends an audition in the opening scenes, the casting crew can’t stop mentioning his brother. And if audiences must suspend disbelief to buy the sibling premise, the actors’ chemistry anchors the film’s chaotic energy. Huebel’s Will is all peacocking self-assurance, while Radnor’s Graham is far more shambolic and self-deprecating. But this isn’t just a two-hander between the two brothers. All Happy Families is a genuine ensemble piece, and Rose’s screenplay, co-written with Coburn Goss, moves smoothly across a colorful roster of character subplots.

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Cazzie David and Elisa Kalani’s ‘I Love You Forever’

There’s Roy (John Ashton), the Landry patriarch whose old-school machismo masks a growing gambling problem. There’s the teenager Evie (Ivy O’Brien), Will’s daughter, who has come out as trans and desperately wants her father’s support. The only issue is that Huebel’s character is far too bound up in his career ambitions to notice his daughter’s struggles. However, the most subtle performance by far is Becky Ann Baker as Sue Landry, whose storyline unexpectedly becomes the emotional heart of All Happy Families. For years, the family matriarch has been relegated to the background role of supportive wife and mother, often overshadowed by her sons’ squabbles. 

All Happy Families Review: Related — WOMAN: At the Heart of James Cameron’s Filmmaking

Yet Sue’s retirement party snaps her out of a sluggish rhythm of life. Without giving too much away, Baker’s character must reassess the quiet compromises she’s made over the decades. The actress delivers a quietly powerful performance that contrasts with the overly dramatic lives of male family members, as Sue is full of dry quips that regularly puncture the egos of her sons. This humor is especially acute with Dana (Chandra Russell), a chef and Graham’s former college crush who  unexpectedly comes back into his life.

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Kôji Fukada’s ‘Love on Trial’

Rose is an experienced director whose films, including Once Upon A River (2019), capture the familiar push-pull of family life with a naturalistic eye. Much of All Happy Families plays out in well-worn domestic spaces, including the living room and kitchen of the fixer-upper house, which feels as ragged as the family living within it. And there’s a lived-in charm to the setting and the urban Chicago backdrop that adds texture without becoming too much of a visual cliché. Plus, All Happy Families’ muted cinematography, via Johanna Coelho,  adds a realistic edge that captures the bittersweet relationships within a complicated family.

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Michael Casey and Paddy Murphy’s ‘Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat’

Still, All Happy Families spins too many narrative plates. With so many threads focusing on intergenerational conflict, gender identity and midlife regret, not every storyline lands with equal weight. At times, the movie feels less like a tightly constructed feature and more like a promising television pilot. There’s certainly enough warmth and character potential to fuel a season or two of an escapist family drama on Netflix; however, as a 90-minute feature, All Happy Families occasionally rushes to check off emotional beats rather than developing empathetic characters.

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Ben Petrie’s ‘The Heirloom’

Ultimately, All Happy Families doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Rose’s plot echoes the pacing of character-driven family dramas like The Way Way Back (2013) and Lady Bird (2017), and the director doesn’t try to shock or satirize American family life. Instead, she invites her audience into a home where love is messy and growth is hard-won, achieved only through honest heart-to-heart conversations and forgiveness. All Happy Families is a warm family drama. What the film lacks in originality, it makes up for in sincerity.

All Happy Families released digitally on September 20, 2024.

Christina Brennan (@bigloudscreams) is a UK-based freelance writer with bylines in Little White Lies, Flux Magazine and Filmhounds. She has a soft spot for all types of horror movies and is currently writing a book on George Sluizer’s thriller The Vanishing (due to be released in 2025).

All Happy Families Review: Related — Review: Joel Potrykus Embraces Change with ‘Vulcanizadora’