Features: DVD
Happy Hour tells the story of Tulley (Anthony LaPaglia), a self proclaimed 'drinker with a writing problem', who struggles to finish his stalled novel while working at a dead end job in a New York City ad agency. Teamed with his best friend and drinking buddy, Levine (Eric Stoltz), Tulley parties away his nights to try to forget the writer's block that plagues him. In his favorite watering hole one night Tulley meets Natalie (Caroleen Feeney), a strong willed school teacher, and an unlikely affair begins. She matches him drink for drink, wisecrack for wisecrack and quietly challenges him to fulfill his promise just as the toll of too many drunken nights begins to catch up with him. With his life and health at a turning point, Tulley sets out to finish his book before his years of carousing finish him. Alternately hilarious and heart breaking, Happy Hour, is the dramatic and emotional story of a gifted writer and the two people who love him. System Requirements:Running Time 93 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE
Editor's Note
Once upon a time it appeared that Tulley (Anthony LaPaglia) had a glittering future mapped out ahead of him. The son of a successful writer, his early literary efforts suggested he would easily follow in his father's prestigious footsteps. Then the booze got him. A slave to the bottle and the bar, Tulley spends his daylight hours counting down the clock in an interminable office job. His coworker and best friend Levine (Eric Stoltz) is a keen companion in the pursuit of alcohol, frequently propping up the bar next to Tulley in the duo's local watering hole, where the sound of the HAPPY HOUR bell is like music to the patrons' ears. But Tulley's life is irretrievably altered one fateful night, when schoolteacher Natalie (Caroleen Feeney) settles down snuggly at the bar, and comfortably matches him drink-for-drink. A love affair begins, and Natalie attempts to coerce Tulley back into writing. Levine tries to explain the futility of such a pursuit, but when Tulley is delivered some shocking news from his doctor, he grasps hold of his addiction and endeavors to overcome it. As he sinks deeper into the abyss of ill health, Tulley enters into a breathless race with the Grim Reaper in order to belatedly fulfill his literary promise.This cinematic study of a hapless alcoholic is so convincing that it's a wonder the celluloid doesn't ooze alcohol from its reels. The coterie of heavy drinkers portrayed by Stoltz, Feeney, and LaPaglia are disturbingly believable, and the movie stands as a fine testament to LaPaglia's skills in particular. Director Mike Bencivenga wonderfully recreates the ambience of New York City's less salacious nightspots, presenting a sad portrait of a man for whom the glass is always half empty.
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