Hector and the Search for Happiness

Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014) is Peter Chelsom's globe-trotting comedy-drama, free to watch online on iFILM. A London psychiatrist realizes he can't make anyone happier, least of all himself, so he packs a notebook and leaves.

Simon Pegg plays Hector, who trades his tidy practice for Shanghai, rural Africa and Los Angeles. Along the way he jots down rules of happiness gleaned from the strangers he meets: a monk, a drug lord, an old flame, a college friend who chose wealth over love. Clara (Rosamund Pike) waits back home, and the farther he travels, the clearer it becomes what he was running from. Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer and Jean Reno fill out the road.

Adapted from French psychiatrist Francois Lelord's bestseller, the film leans entirely on Pegg's charm rather than plot twists; he plays a grown man with a kid's curiosity, and it carries the whole trip. Comfort viewing for a night when you'd rather have a gentle fable than heavy drama. Stream Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014) online on iFILM.