Happy Endings

For his first film since 2000’s Ben-‘n’-Gwyn dud Bounce, writer-director Don Roos tells the intertwining tales of 10 disparate L.A. denizens trying to get a handle on their messy lives. Front and center is Mamie (Lisa Kudrow), a depressed abortion counselor being blackmailed by a sleazy wannabe film student (Jesse Bradford), who claims to have located the child she gave up for adoption years ago under some very hush-hush circumstances — and will reunite them only if he can videotape the whole thing. (And that’s just the tip of this incredibly complicated iceberg.) Says Kudrow, ”It’s maddening and fascinating to watch her get sucked in by what’s being done to her.” Yeah, seriously — where are those Friends now that she really needs them?