TIFF 2014: Hector and the Search For Happiness… by CraveOnline
In the spirit of the globe-trotting film, Hector and the Search for Happiness, CraveOnline met up with repeat co-stars Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike (The World’s End) at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film — itself an adaptation on the internationally best-selling novel by Francis Lelord — follows Hector (Pegg), a psychiatrist who finds it increasingly difficult to connect to his bourgeoisie patients and his mommy-ing girlfriend (Pike). So Hector decides to travel from Paris to China, to Tibet, to (undisclosed) Africa and, finally, to the world’s end: Los Angeles. His goal is to figure out what makes people happy. He learns some lessons of gratitude, but more importantly, learns to re-contextualize his present and his past. In other words, her gets some much-needed therapy himself.
Related: ‘Hector and the Search for Happiness’ Review
Hector has a fantastic cast, who are spread out across the shooting locations. In addition to the charming Pegg and Pike, there’s also Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Jean Reno (Leon: The Professional), Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting) and Academy Award-winning octogenarian Christopher Plummer (Beginners). We sat down with Pegg and Pike to talk about the locations, the great cast and for our correspondent to take a scene from the film and pitch it as an Altered States reboot.
Hector screened in the “special presentations” section of TIFF 2014 and can be seen in theaters in these United States of America this Friday, September 19.
Brian Formo is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianEmilFormo.