The folks out at Lions Gate sent out a copy of Happy Tears, and if you’ve got older parents, you’re probably going to want to see this. There’ll be a few laughs thrown in, but it’s mostly going to be a sad and largely unpleasant movie, both of which owe largely to Rip Torn.

He’s joined here by Parker Posey and, for some reason, Demi Moore, as two daughters find themselves dealing with their aging father who’s just got a nasty diagnosis of dementia. He’s falling apart in rapid fashion (believe me, it’s a fashion more rapid than you’d ever want to see–once again we’ll see Rip Torn’s ass, exposed, with a little…extra…involved, which is something I’d hoped never to see again after Freddy Got Fingered), and his two daughters are, give them credit, standing up and taking care of him. But as things start to fall apart, both with father Joe and with the sisters’ relationship, what happens between the three of them will spiral out of control in a morass of bizarre incidents, until in the end, the three discover how important family really is in life.

The bad part about Happy Tears is that it really can’t decide whether it’s going to be a comedy or a drama. It wavers, wildly, injecting funny parts in the midst of horribly overblown melodrama, making it largely impossible to peg.  Sure, the back of the box declares in pretty much one voice that it’s a “heartwarming comedy”, but frankly, half the time it’s such an overdramatic mess that it’s only funny if you have some kind of sadistic tendencies.

Worse, it’s not only heavy on the drama, and light on the laughs, it’s also heavy on the dull. This movie is one of the biggest snoozes I’ve ever sat through. I will say this for it, though: the ending is a slice of happy that almost, but not quite, makes it worthwhile to have sat through the eighty-odd minutes that came before it.

Thankfully, Posey and Moore put on good performances, and if Rip Torn can’t play an old man neck deep in dementia, well, it’s a tragedy unlike any other. After that stunt with the bank robbery, he’s so very believable as a demented old man.

So at the end, though Happy Tears isn’t a really great movie, it does end well, and this makes it at least somewhat good.

The Screenhead Ten Scale hands Happy Tears a kind of weepy five handkerchiefs out of ten. It may be a bit confused as to its actual genre, but it’s not without at least some charm.