Happy Valley (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Good
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / April 22, 2008

The promotional poster for “Happy Valley” is perfectly deceptive, which complements the film’s overall purpose. It shows a lady (presumably a Mormon) in a pink, polka-dotted outfit holding a plate of green Jell-O. On the surface, the poster seems to be advertising another painfully clichéd, local, LDS filmmaker’s production. But not so.

A closer look at the green Jell-O reveals two prescription bottles and pills. Yes, this documentary about Utah’s so-called “Happy Valley” aims to expose the seeming utopia’s underlying problem with drug abuse and drug addiction (particularly with pain killers). This poster is excellent because it’s a visual representation of the film itself.

Ron Williams, the film’s creator and director, has made an intensely personal movie. He interviews friends and other inhabitants of Happy Valley who have suffered great loss and tragedy due to drug addiction. We, the viewers, are subjected to the woeful words of grieving parents who have lost children to drugs. There are pitiful moments in “Happy Valley” that are unbearably heart-wrenching. Williams also includes his own family’s personal scrapes with addiction.

One of the main points to “Happy Valley” is that the film isn’t solely indicative of Utah County. This film could have been made about Anytown, U.S.A. But, it is worth noting, that the film has much greater appeal to those who actually live (or have lived) in Happy Valley. Indeed, I doubt many of my East Coast family members, for instance, would be nearly as intrigued as I was.

There is another unavoidable but peculiar problem with “Happy Valley.” It examines a number of specific individual cases — which are great — but the actual issue is the secretive nature of Happy Valley’s drug problem. Therefore, one might be tempted to dismiss the relative few examples of the film as isolated cases, since there aren’t countless people lining up to confess their drug addiction to a documentarist.

It helps that Williams includes several statistics, which are somewhat convincing, but even my sister-in-law asked of this film, “Isn’t that movie a little exaggerated?” I suspect a number of local residents will be similarly dismissive, but “Happy Valley” indicates that denial is one of the leading contributors to Utah’s drug problem. Case in point.

It is remarkable as well as commendable how Salt Lake City’s TV personality Danny Allen and his friend “Greg” humbly lay bare their battles with drug addiction. And as we see and hear one mother’s anger and bitterness toward the girl whom she blames for her daughter’s death, we feel that we’re watching something entirely too personal and too painful to be exposed to theater audiences. Overall, “Happy Valley” is worth a look, especially for parents and teens.

Directed by Ron Williams and Dan Barnett
Ron Williams / Danny Allen / Macall Petersen
Documentary 101 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for drug use, thematic elements and mild profanity)

U.S. Release Date: March 28, 2008
Copyright 2008: 279