Days of Happiness

It would be difficult to avoid comparisons between Days of Happiness and 2022’s Tár. Both films are about female conductors who are also queer. Both even utilize Mahler for the film’s third act performance. So you know what? I’ll not going to try and avoid comparisons. Comparing Days of Happiness to Tár was what I spent a lot of the film’s runtime doing. And I imagine the same will be true for anyone else who has seen Tár. And this definitely sucks for Days of Happiness. The film was in production before Tár was released. But by the time I saw the premiere, Tár had been out for almost a year. While Days of Happiness is not a bad film by any means, the Tár comparisons definitely hurt it as Tár is basically a masterpiece and Days of Happiness just isn’t on the same level.

Days of Happiness’ protagonist, Emma begins the film completing residency placements as a conductor. Emma’s agent is also her father, Patrick. And he’s at least borderline abusive. Much of her work and choices come at the strong hinting from her father or Emma’s own desire to avoid angering him. But for all of Emma’s talent, she’s thrown into a tailspin when she’s told her conducting lacks emotion and that to be great, she needs to break the rules. The repressed Emma struggles with this. In her personal life, Emma is in a relationship with a woman named Naëlle. But the two rarely seem on the same page about their relationship. For Emma, being with Naëlle is a genuine need coupled with a fear of Naëlle leaving her. But Naëlle has a young son and is understandably reticent about being such an emotional anchor for Emma.

Really, Days of Happiness and Tár aren’t that similar beyond the protagonist’s profession and sexuality. One is about a powerful woman who sucks. The other is about a woman with less power whose dad sucks. Totally different! But this doesn’t stop the comparisons on specific or technical levels. Sound, for example. Both use classic music heavily in the sound mix. But the way that Tár weaves classical music into a larger soundscape and score is exceptional work. Days of Happiness features merely acceptable sound design. The same is true about story structure. Every scene in Tár felt purposeful. The same is not true with Days of Happiness. There are scenes that feel comparatively pointless or repetitive. Several individual scenes don’t stand strong on their own. Yes, they contribute to the film’s overall themes, but you could lose several individual iterations of the same thing.

The acting in Days of Happiness isn’t something I would have noticed if I wasn’t so directly comparing it to another film. Sophie Desmarais is fine as Emma. She’s serviceable. But she’s not Cate Blanchett. This is admittedly, not fair. No one except Cate Blanchett is Cate Blanchett. And this movie couldn’t afford Cate Blanchett. But still, the comparison is again unkind to Days of Happiness as Tár is perhaps a career best for Blanchett. She was nominated for an Oscar for that performance and in many other years, I think she would’ve won. I’m not sure if Sophie Desmarais can even win a Canadian Screen Award with her performance as Emma.

Apologies for everyone who wanted a Days of Happiness review and just got a stealth second review of Tár. Days of Happiness is a fine film. I don’t really have any problems with it, it just failed to be great. And really, I can’t really recommend it to anyone who has seen Tár. Do you really need to see two films about sapphic female conductors? I mean, I do. But that’s because I have to watch every WLW film. But I’ve been reliably informed that’s not a universal experience. Really, the only way I would recommend this is to someone who hasn’t seen Tár. That person can go into the film without such a large shadow over this story which deserves to be appraised on its own merits. I wasn’t capable of doing that, but I support others picking up my slack in this regard.

Overall rating: 6.0/10

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