Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers.
Every so often a movie comes along that is so confounding viewers wonder whether they are being trolled. In 2003, Tommy Wiseau gave us The Room, a movie seemingly out of nowhere that was so incredibly horrible it became infamous. Add to that the mystery surrounding Wiseau and the making of the film—he claims to be born and raised in the US, but what is with that suspiciously European accent? How did he raise so much money to make The Room and where did it all go?—the movie has ascended to cult status. Now, 2019 brings us a new film that begs to join the annals of movie cultdom. Happy Endings Sleepover.
First, I am in no way arguing that Happy Endings Sleepover is on par with the atrocity that is The Room. No, Wiseau’s film manages to be offensive and misogynistic in addition to being just plain bad. Happy Endings Sleepover is actually a rather sweet, albeit flawed, film. Though, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the title makes this sound like a porno, which it is definitely not.
A Danish Gay Spy Thriller?
Happy Endings Sleepover follows Johnnie Allen (Jeppe Fogsgaard), a 20-year-old American from Tacoma, Washington who, despite not speaking a word of Danish, has been stationed in Denmark by his employer, The CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency CIA, not the Culinary Institute of America. His job title is transportation supervisor, he is expected to pick up an asset from one location and deliver it to another location.
In Denmark, he meets and falls quickly for Sander Lars Hansen (Jonas Kyed). Being a dumb kid, he agrees to bring Sander along on his mission. Things go awry when it turns out the asset he was supposed to meet has been compromised, and in his place is a villainous Russian. Eventually everything works out, the evil Russian is arrested and Johnny and Sander end up happily together.
The movie itself is cute, although it has its flaws. For one thing, the film is adapted from a book of the same name (the book’s author wrote the screenplay) and it falls into many of the traps that adapted works often do. For example, in trying to adapt first-person narration in the book, too much voice-over narration is used in the movie. Some of the dialogue is cringe-inducing and could have used a once-over.
One of the things that stands out most is that while Johnny is American, Jeppe Fogsgaard, sounds European. This is explained away early in the film when Johnny informs the viewer that he grew up in a religious cult in the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. It’s a blink or you’ll miss it line and if you miss it you might spend the rest of the film wondering why he doesn’t sound like an American.
On The Case
You may now be wondering why this movie deserves to be elevated to the status of cult fandom. Here is where the story gets interesting. After watching this I decided to look up the production. I found an Indiegogo campaign for the film to raise $100,000. This money was intended not for production, but for advertising costs. No, the movie’s production already was financed to the tune of $1.75 million. How did this little indie movie raise that much money? It’s also worth noting that the cast listed on the Indiegogo campaign is significantly different from the actual cast, so why did all the original actors drop out?
That’s all interesting enough, but now it’s time for the pièce de résistance. The script, written by Cade Jay Hathaway, which, as aforementioned, was adapted from his book of the same name—the book is the first in his series about CIA transportation specialist Johnnie Allen and his Danish boyfriend Sander Lars Hansen—was allegedly based on his life. Wait. What? Yes, according to Hathaway’s bio, he grew up in an evangelical family, escaped the religious environment the moment he could, and eventually was recruited to work for the CIA. It is then that he was stationed in Denmark as a Field Transport Specialist (a job title I cannot find on the CIA’s website) and met the love of his life, a Dane named Lasse Sander Jørgensen.
Ok, now I was intrigued. Was I really supposed to believe that Hathaway was employed by the CIA? The movie seemed a little fanciful to me, more satire than based on truth. But, I knew I wouldn’t be content to just leave it at that, I needed answers. So, one Friday night I tracked down the Facebook accounts for Hathaway and the lead actors, Fogsgaard and Kyed. I sent all three of them a friend request and a message. To Hathaway, I wrote:
Hello Mr. Hathaway, I am a film journalist who focuses on LGBT movies with romantic happy endings. Recently I came across your film Happy Endings Sleepover on Amazon Prime, and given its romantic ending, plan on covering it in my column Queerly Ever After for filminquiry.com. While researching the film I read that the story is actually based on your life and that you were a Field Transport Supervisor for the CIA. Can you confirm is this is true and what years you worked for the CIA? Thanks! Amanda Stern
To Fogsgaard and Kyed, I wrote:
Hello Mr. Fogsgaard/Kyed, I am a writer in New York City, I write a column called Queerly Ever After about LGBT movies with romantic happy endings. I would like to talk to you about your movie Happy Endings Sleepover. Best, Amanda
At is was around 2am in Denmark, I figured I wouldn’t hear from any of the men for a little while, if ever, so I moved on with my evening. My attention was quickly dragged back to my Facebook account when over the course of half an hour, all three of them had accepted my friend request and responded to my message. All of them were eager to speak with me about this film. Now, I was getting somewhere.
Check back in 2 weeks for answers.
Happy Endings Sleepover started streaming on Amazon Prime on October 21, 2019. For all other release dates, see here.
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