This is a wonderfully powerful film that manages to seriously portray family drama in a believable way - so much so that I could match situations in the film to similar situations that have happened at my own family gatherings. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, hence the lower rating, but for me it was a great snapshot into a family's life and all the issues that get dragged up when so many people come together with a lot of emotional baggage.Others have mentioned the amazing acting performances and they really do bring the characters and thus the story to life. You can't help but feel for Ellen Barkin's Lynn as she's getting picked at from all sides, both from judgement and disdain from outside her immediate family and from within with Ezra Miller's Elliot acting up the entire time.However, this film tends highly towards the drama end of comedy-drama, so much so that it contains very little comedy at all in my opinion so I feel the genre categorising is a little disingenuous.

I was blown away by this movie when I first saw it a few years ago. It's one of my all time favorite movies, one that I can go back and watch repeatedly and enjoy it every time. Ellen Barkin is so amazing in this movie, it makes you wonder why she doesn't get more great acting roles these days like this one. Of all her movies I've seen, this is by far my favorite. This was the first performance of Ezra Miller that I had ever seen, from his character's dialogue at the beginning of the movie I could tell I was going to like him and his character. I can't imagine this movie now without him. He is a very talented actor especially for being so young. The performance that really surprised me and blew me away was that of Kate Bosworth. Her character in this is like nothing she as ever played before. She is great in her other roles, but she really shines in this playing a character like Alice, that is very insecure, wounded, and very fragile. She is definitely not a one dimensional actress and can play all kinds of roles. I think this movie deserves a much higher rating and much more respect from the critics. It shows you that you shouldn't always hold so much stock in the reviews and ratings of professional movie critics.

What a surprise this was. Wasn't expecting much, due to mixed reception, but immediately I realized this is not only a drama, it's a dark comedy, and added that to the description here at IMDb. The title "Another happy day" is completely ironical, something I can see some reviewers of this really haven't grasped. There's simply no happiness here.It's a story about an extremely dysfunctional family, the Helmans (as in Hell mans) and it's tragic, this family event, which makes everything come to the surface. This is a comedy filled with black humor, mixed with life tragedies and lots if irony, which obviously many must have had problems in understanding. Maybe you've got to know a dysfunctional family to appreciate this film, or even be a part of it. The film is a gathering if most common problems which may occur in lives, though it might be a big much since everything herd is within a family.Drug abuse, depression, self destructive behavior, therapy, domestic violence, alcoholism, difficult parents-children relations, adultery, Alzheimer's, neighboring conflicts, family secrets, suicidal tendencies... It's all here. The film resembles a couple of other tragic comic family disasters I've seen, like "Festen" ("The Celebration"), August: Osage County" and "Cabin fever"/("Når nettene blir lange"), "In bed with Santa"/("Tomten er far til alla barnen") and even "Hotel New Hampshire" though I haven't seen the latter since it came out. Well I tend to enjoy these kinds of tragedy portrays, and this is up among them.Maybe not great to watch either, if you're right in a family crises, if you don't then find this comforting. Someone always got it worse. Anyway, this is beautifully acted, not only by Ellen Barkin, which is perfect in a tragedy like this, but by the whole ensemble. I simply wax blown away by Ezra Miller and Kate Bosworth, Ellen Burstyn is as always great. I completely enjoyed the play with differences in a big family.The film is greatly summed up in the son Elliot asking the bartender to give him three scotch whiskeys. The bartender asks "How old are you?" before getting this answer: -I'm 17. This is my family, and this is Hell! The bartender serving the three drinks without any hesitation.Lovely dark comedy!

I almost didn't watch this film because of the low rating, however, I am so glad I did. Perhaps because I relate to the total dysfunction of this family. I'm not sure I've ever seen a film that so honestly depicts the family dynamic and the characters within it. The emotional depth so brilliantly displayed by Ellen Barkin (who plays Lynn), is truly profound. Her agony is so real, so sad, and so hopeless. She takes hit after hit from her children, her parents, and her siblings as the whole extended family gathers to celebrate her estranged sons marriage. I actually believed her character was one of the strongest of all of them. Although not perfect, she continues to go on and on amidst all of the embarrassment and humiliation inflicted by her family, and survives through to the end. The performances in this film are just so perfect. You whole-heartedly believe in every one of these characters. As most REAL-LIFE situations have it, it does not end with rainbows and kittens and cupcakes. However, it does leave you with something to hang on to. As Lynn's son Elliot so brazenly put it: "Death is a more unifying force within family than love". And death, better than nothing at all for this family.