Hector and the Search for Happiness

The meaning of life is pondered in piecemeal fashion in this stuttering comedy drama, starring Simon Pegg as a strait-laced psychiatrist disillusioned with his well-ordered, comfortable existence. He sets out on a global voyage of discovery, along the way encountering millionaire businessmen living it large in China, aid workers, drug lords and military rebels in Africa, before reaching a conclusion (of sorts) after visiting an old flame in Los Angeles. Director/co-writer Peter Chelsom peppers his narrative with fortune-cookie homilies rather than weighty epiphanies, and there's little true substance in Hector's episodic journey. Pegg sleepwalks through the central role, and it's difficult to care what happens to his essentially spoilt, self-involved character, while Rosamund Pike (struggling with a semi-comedic role) as his stuck-at-home girlfriend and Toni Collette (as his past lover) have relatively little to do in an overlong and forgettable film.