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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1554.PNG]]
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3->''"We should concern ourselves not so much with the pursuit of happiness, but with the happiness of pursuit."''
4-->-- '''Professor Coreman'''
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6''Hector and the Search for Happiness'' is a 2014 British-German-Canadian comedy-drama film starring Creator/SimonPegg, Creator/RosamundPike, Creator/JeanReno, Creator/ToniCollette, Creator/ChristopherPlummer, and Creator/StellanSkarsgard. It was based on a 2002 novel by Creator/FrancoisLalord.
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8Hector is a London-based frustrated psychiatrist that is unable to take pleasure in his "satisfactory" life and disillusioned with the tedium of his existence. He confesses to his girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike) that he feels he is a fraud for dispensing recommendations to patients who never seem to improve or get any happier.
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10Wanting to break out of his lackluster routine, Hector gives his starved curiosity free rein and embarks on an international quest to find the right formula to bring him joy and vitality.
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13!!This film provides examples of:
14* AffablyEvil: Diego Baresco. He may be the local drug kingpin, but his friendship with Hector is genuine, and they end up helping each other.
15* BettyAndVeronica: Hector becomes torn between his long-standing stable girlfriend Clara, or the [[HeadturningBeauty beautiful]] and exotic Ying Li he met in China.
16* ExoticBackdropSetting. Lampshaded at one point in the book. "You might be thinking that not enough has been said about African people in a country where everybody is African..."
17* FauxAffablyEvil: The African warlord who kidnaps and nearly murders Hector. He condescendingly humors Hector by talking about his book and allowing him to write what would be his final journal entry, as though to say that killing him is nothing personal.
18* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Edward is a cynical, cold, jaded, and fabulously wealthy banker living the jet set life. While he seems to ooze contempt for everyone around him, he decides to take Hector under his wing and show him a good time in Shanghai, and says that he's happy that he made the effort to get to know somebody outside of his normal social circle and comfort zone afterwards (though he's visibly repulsed when Hector gets all emotional and touchy-feely when they say goodbye).
19* MsFanservice: Ying Li is an attractive woman whom Hector meets in China and is immediately smitten with. She has a LingerieScene when she and Hector attempt to sleep together and [[TheLoinsSleepTonight when that fails]] she still SleepsInTheNude beside him. She also has a brief ShowerScene. Clara also qualified.
20* RunningGag: Hector keeps on losing pens and having to borrow them from other people. [[spoiler: It ends up saving his life.]]
21* PostCoitalCollapse: We get this shot after Hector and Clara sleep together, with her being the one to drop on top of him, in a brief ToplessnessFromTheBack shot before rolling off and wrapping herself up in a ModestyBedsheet.
22* TheShrink: Hector's is a psychiatrist and considers himself a fraud since he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier.
23* StraightGay: Michael (Hector had no idea that Michael, who has none of the stereotypical mannerisms, was gay until he finds out that Marcel is his lover, even though Michael was his best friend in college).
24* UnusualEuphemism: Diego Baresco calls himself a "farmer". You... might not want to enquire too closely about his crops.
25* WorldTour: Hector goes on an international quest in order to find out "what makes people happy".

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