Days of Happiness

Directed by Chloé Robichaud, Days of Happiness follows an ambitious classical-music conductor (Sophie Desmarais’ Emma) as she faces a series of personal and professional obstacles. Filmmaker Robichaud, armed with her own screenplay, kicks Days of Happiness off with an attention-grabbing and thoroughly entertaining sequence that’s enhanced by Desmarais’ lived-in, spellbinding performance, which ensures that the movie’s subsequent (and perhaps inevitable) transformation into a deliberate character study isn’t as jarring as one might’ve feared – although, by that same token, Robichaud admittedly does push the slow-moving aesthetic to its breaking point. It’s clear, then, that Days of Happiness improves considerably as it progresses into a comparatively intense second half, as Robichaud begins emphasizing the central character’s fractured relationships with her tough dad/agent and indecisive girlfriend. (There is, for example, a terrific scene wherein Emma confront the former and tells him she’s met with other representatives.) By the time the engrossing final stretch rolls around, Days of Happiness has confirmed its place as an effective (and affecting) drama that boasts a spellbinding performance at its core.

*** out of ****