{"id":1872,"date":"2026-06-11T06:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2026-06-11T06:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T06:35:42","slug":"happy-hours-review-katie-holmes-and-joshua-jackson-are-reunited-in-a-romcom-made-for-nineties-nostalgists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1872","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Happy Hours\u2019 Review: Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson Are Reunited in a Romcom Made for Nineties Nostalgists"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tThe star pairing of \u201cHappy Hours\u201d isn\u2019t just its selling point, but its audience filter. If the words \u201cKatie Holmes and Joshua Jackson together again\u201d make your heart go a little soft, then congratulations: This equally soft-hearted romantic comedy has been made directly for you. If, however, you\u2019re unmoved by the prospect of a \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d reunion \u2014 or young enough not to know what that means \u2014 then feel free to walk on by: While perfectly innocuous, Holmes\u2019 latest outing as a writer-director has nothing especially novel to offer viewers with no great attachment to its once-involved leads. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1870\">JioHotstar\u2019s Tadka Indian Microdrama Platform Reaches 100 Million Users<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe good news is that, as former teenage lovers brought together by chance in middle age, Holmes and Jackson are as personable now as they were back then; on the other hand, Holmes\u2019 script, a plot-light affair that rides heavily on the metatextual nature of its casting, doesn\u2019t ask much more of them than that. Alternating tonally between tidy commercial romcom tropes and the shaggier walking-and-talking of Richard Linklater\u2019s \u201cBefore\u201d films, \u201cHappy Hours\u201d hasn\u2019t the depth or breadth of dialogue required to sustain the latter approach \u2014 though it\u2019s been mooted as the first in a trilogy revolving around these characters, we\u2019re not left eager to learn that much more about them.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tStill, while Holmes\u2019 three previous features \u2014 two of which, like this one, premiered at Tribeca \u2014 had to settle for online releases, the appeal of the leads here (both on paper and, in turns out, in practice) may be enough to score \u201cHappy Hours\u201d some theatrical exposure. Supporting roles for Constance Wu and Mary-Louise Parker (adding a bit of welcome salt to the sweetness whenever she turns up as a free-living, free-loving elder) round out the film\u2019s mainstream-indie credentials, though any other characters here exist only to prop up our reacquainted lovers.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLiz (Holmes) is a professional photographer and newly minted divorc\u00e9e, introduced clearing her Manhattan apartment of her ex-husband\u2019s debris. The divorce coincides with a new, less compromising approach to her work life too, as she prioritizes passion projects over paychecks: \u201cI only want to take photos of real people,\u201d she says, swearing off celebrity portrait commissions.  Until, at least, one such commission is too intriguing to pass up: celebrated travel writer Andrew McCloud (Jackson), who just happens to be the first man she ever loved, some 30-odd years ago. Recurring flashbacks outline a blissed-out young romance (with Jack Martin and Johnna Dias-Watson as the stars\u2019 youthful counterparts), soundtracked not by Nineties classics but the new-wave pulse of Blondie, the shared favorite band of these two old souls. Decades later \u2014 with an original song score by Norah Jones now providing the mellower midlife mood music \u2014 both are still unsure what went wrong between them.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1868\">Taylor Swift Attends NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden to Support the Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tIf it doesn\u2019t ring entirely true that two attractive, successful New Yorkers with everything going for them are still hung up on a decades-old crush, no matter: \u201cHappy Hours\u201d is a film with a steadfast belief in steadfast soulmates. Liz may put up a passive-aggressive front when she meets Andrew for a brisk photo shoot, but it takes only a few minutes of screen time for that old feeling to reemerge. A calamitous group date with their various ragtag pals \u2014 including Joe Tippett and Deaf actor John McGinty as Andrew\u2019s straight-shooting BFFs, whose ASL conversations are pleasingly portrayed without additional  narrative context \u2014 doesn\u2019t throw the pair off their plainly predestined course, and nor do a few contrived narrative roadblocks thrown into the second half. True love will not be broken, and neither will entrenched romantic comedy law.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cHappy Hours\u201d opens on the famous Alan Watts quote: \u201cYou cannot compare this present experience with a past experience. You can only compare it with a memory of the past, which is a part of the present experience.\u201d At its most ambitious, Holmes\u2019 script applies that idea to a relationship unfolding in two timeframes, though its observations aren\u2019t especially substantial: Life happens, time is long but also short, and people change except when they don\u2019t. Holmes and Jackson, happily, have enough natural chemistry to keep this uncomplicated construction afloat: If neither Liz nor Andrew is a fully dimensional character, they\u2019re filled out by the personalities and backstories of the actors playing them.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1866\">Yamada Takayuki Stars in Australia\u2013Japan Supernatural Romance \u2018Tanabata: The Evening of the Seventh\u2019 (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\t\u2018Happy Hours\u2019 Review: Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson Are Reunited in a Romcom Made for Nineties Nostalgists<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\tReviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (Narrative Spotlight), April 9, 2026. Running time: 80 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>Production:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn STX presentation in association with Crown Productions of a Maven Screen Media, Bond Street Station production. Producers: Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler, Peter Coleman, Paula P. Manzanedo. Executive producers: Norah Jones, Amy Jarvela, Jenny Halper, Sophia Pedlow, Jackie Donohoe, Kenneth King, Sam Brown, Bryan Bordon, Annie Herndon.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Crew:<\/strong><br \/>\nDirector, screenplay: Katie Holmes. Camera: Michael McDonough. Editor: Ian Blume. Music: Norah Jones.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>With:<\/strong><br \/>\nKatie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, John McGinty, Joe Tippett, Jack Martin, Johnna Dias-Watson, Donald Webber Jr., Chlo\u00eb Kerwin, Constance Wu, Mary-Louise Parker. \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Co-starring Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes&#8217; romantic comedy &#8216;Happy Hours&#8217; knows who its audience is, and gives them what they want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1603,1604,1605,822],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-happy-hours","tag-joshua-jackson","tag-katie-holmes","tag-tribeca-film-festival"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Happy Hours\u2019 Review: Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson Are Reunited in a Romcom Made for Nineties Nostalgists - 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