Richard Crouse

“Happythankyoumoreplease” is the kind of movie Woody Allen might have made if he wasn’t a genius. Set in New York City it’s a look at the lives of a series of interconnected late-twenty-somethings as they navigate their way from hipsterhood to adulthood.

Writer-director Josh Radnor (who also stars on TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”) is Sam, a freelance writer who “adopts” Rasheen (Michael Algieri), a boy he finds on the subway. The youngster, separated from his foster family, becomes entwined in the lives of Sam’s friends, bartender and singer (and love interest) Mississippi (Kate Mara), Mary Catherine and Charlie a painter and filmmaker played by Zoe Kazan and Pablo Schreiber and Annie (Malin Akerman), a friend with alopecia and her suitor Sam # 2 (Tony Hale). Together and separately they traverse the gap between where they are, and where they’re going.

“Happythankyoumoreplease” is a likeable but slight movie, the kind of indie flick you probably didn’t go see when it played for a week at your local theatre. It starts off strong as we get to know the characters but by the time Sam and friends, by sheer repetition, have burned the hipster mantra “awesome” into your deepest consciousness, the movie wears a little thin.

But what it lacks in real depth it makes up for in charisma. Radnor (who proves himself a capable director) makes for an interesting central character, funny and self-depreciating and Malin Akerman, as the hairless girl with self esteem issues, shines.

In the end if you scratch “Happythankyoumoreplease’s” cooler-than-cooler veneer there is an under coating of heart. It’s no Woody Allen, but worth a look.