Happy Birthday, Toby Simpson, written and directed by Patrick Makin - 8.5 out of 10

Happy Birthday, Toby Simpson, written and directed by Patrick Makin

8.5 out of 10

This is a charming, interesting, original, perhaps even transformational independent film that is more than unlikely to come to a theater near you…actually, the only chance to see it would be if Cinemax has it in the program – and you have the subscription – or Netflix is listing it somewhere.

It was on our Cinemax offer, 1 or 2, yesterday and it was a pleasure to watch a young man, Toby Simpson, change his life, abandon the dead end in which he was driving, find a way out of the impossible, continuous conflict with his present partner – by the way, psychology studies warn those who are trapped in relationships that are this conflictual that their experience is the equivalent of being in a car crash every single day!

Being divorced is not the optimum, nec plus ultra solution – in fact, the life expectancy for the divorced is lower and so is their life satisfaction – but it is so much better than sticking on with a bond that takes you into a car accident on a regular basis…not literally, but emotionally.

Anthony Perkins is the good actor playing Toby Simpson and he has won the Best Actor prize at The British Independent Film Festival, where the motion picture has won Best Feature Film and Best Music – I would have rather given the award for Best Actress to Edyta Budnik aka Renata than to Perkins.

Toby Simpson is involved in a very difficult relationship, at the start of the film, the kind of connection that would have the ultimate expert on human relationships, John Gottman, the one who has an incredible accuracy rate when diagnosing problems, of over 90%, say that the hero would be much better out of it.

Hannah, the protagonist’s partner, is a very obnoxious, domineering, selfish and almost impossible woman, that presents the man with a gift and goes ballistic when he appreciates, says he likes it, but he does not faint in admiration, as she seems to have wanted.

Toby makes it worse when he says this is the best key chain he has seen – or something similar – and she is enraged by the mistake, for this is something else – however flimsy the difference – and furthermore, it has her finger print on it and how dare he miss this dramatic, cardinal element that makes that small piece of ridiculous garment so divine.

That first scene was already enough to understand that these people would better hurry to buy and study the book of John Gottman, the quintessential work The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work and see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that they play with permanently…

Contempt, Stonewalling, Criticism and Defensiveness.

On the other hand, there seems to be no chance for this couple, for the woman is so overbearing as to make the hero say that he would try and change the timing for a test he has to take at work, which would prove impossible and indeed, it is another proof that this self-centered individual would compromise the position, the job of the man she claims to love, only to satisfy her ego and lack of self-esteem.

Toby Simpson finds himself in the position where his boss is upset by his request and in a ridiculous manner, the lack of enthusiasm that the hero shows for…soap, which is like the representation of deity for this manager, in the way primitive men worshipped stones and idols, he is in awe of soap.

The life of the protagonist is changed when he meets Renata aka the marvelous Edyta Budnik, as they travel on the same bus, where she mentions her origins in the Czech republic and decides to take the initiative and would ultimately have an enormous impact on the future of the helpless man, who does not know at that point how lucky he is.

This may sound as giving away the final act, which I do not think I will expose, even if the chances of you seeing this feature are as small as mentioned in the debut of the note.

When they stop, Toby finds he has no wallet, phone and he is desperate, even after Renata says that she thinks a man with a mauve hat has taken them, suggests that they enter the premises to find him.

Then she offers her phone, he calls Hannah, only to hear the usual assault, abuse that is included in the two aforementioned four horsemen arsenal – contempt and criticism – and then the hero makes it even worse, as he calls later, claiming that the woman who has offered the phone is no longer with him, a lie as his partner sees, since he is calling from the same number.

Renata is an aroma therapy expert, but regardless of the merits of the field, contested by Toby himself, she proves to be a Miracle Woman, for she uses psychology, Emotional Intelligence with such divine skill that she would transform this frog – in spiritual terms – into a prince, in the sense that when they meet, he lacks self-esteem, looks like a lamentable human being, working at something he does not like, sharing his life with a monster.

This Angel of Mercy would set him free, after such a short time, encouraging him to pursue panting, find that the bond with Hannah is not working and most importantly, demonstrating to him that he can be happy, blissfully so – granted, they use some mild substances in one case, but the archetypal secret is to look within and insist on his good side, character strengths, rather than stay in a job and with a woman that always concentrate on his less admirable qualities.

On many levels, this film could help viewers discover issues they have themselves- perhaps they spend too much time correcting things, when positive psychology research has demonstrated that we need to focus on our character strengths and not insist on the negative traits.

Finally, there are two interesting poems that the protagonists say to each other, one about the parents that “fuck you up” and the other about the need to open the door – which is what Toby does, to the rest of his life that is saved by this god-like Renata.

Fuck you up