How to Find a Happy Place - Palm Springs
Every now and then, a movie finds its audience at just the right moment. There’s no way the filmmakers could have known the world the movie would enter, but it turns out to be perfectly timed to take on an all-new deeper-than-intended meaning. Such is the case with Palm Springs. This Groundhogs Day redux takes on a new meaning in the era of Covid-19, where we are all living out string of very similarly constrained days.
What does your perfect day entail? Would you want it to be a special day or a more mundane one? Would you do the same thing every day or switch it up? Is there someone you would want to go through those repetitive days with? These are the questions the film tries to grapple with and once it finds its footing, it reaches some surprisingly deep conclusions. Beyond the laugh lines associated with a typical Andy Samberg vehicle, it delves into the misleading nature of satisfaction and the ways in which most of us never actually know what we want.
When we meet our cast of characters, they are preparing for the wedding of Tala and Abe. Nyles (played by Andy Samberg) wakes up to a vision of his girlfriend shaving her legs—a vision that is repeated several times throughout the movie. Eventually, they make it to the wedding, where Nyles gives an impromptu speech to save Sarah (played by Cristin Milioti), Tala’s sister from having to do so. Moved by his gesture, Sarah eventually winds up spending time with Nyles and forming an emotional bond. Eventually, the night ends and the loop begins again.
There are mysteries and surprised along the way that I won’t spoil here, but it suffices to say that for a story about a day that repeats, there are a lot of twists and turns. In the end, our characters are able to thoroughly grapple with what exactly makes a day worth living.
The idea that the contents of a day is ultimately less important that who you spend it with is not new in cinema. But Palm Springs finds inventive ways to test everyone’s preconceived notions of what life can be. Samberg and Milioti have an easy chemistry that not only leads to laughs, but also a genuinely believable on-screen romance. With and impactful turn for JK Simmons (in a role better left as a surprise, the entire cast really brings it. By the end, even though they aren’t necessarily the deepest characters, everyone’s roll makes sense and gives the movie a generally firm footing.
If you’ve been thinking at all about the content of your days, this is one not to be missed. Take advantage of the serendipitous final product and perhaps get a new view of the world.
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