In Ode to Joy, Martin Freeman is scared to fall in love.Martin Freeman has perfected the art of playing awkward everymen in films who have little agency in themselves and unexpected adventures and stuff just happen to them. Think Bilbo Baggins and John Watson, arguably his most popular roles.
In Ode to Joy, his character, Charlie, who is a librarian, is cataplexic, in which the person experiences sudden muscle weakness due to strong emotions like laughter and terror. In the case of Charlie, it is joy. Too much of it, and he will pass out.
This makes for a potentially interesting story in which he avoids getting in situations too happy and makes do with just okayish things the life has to offer. This is why he is scared to fall in love. That is before he meets Francesca (Morena Baccarin).
The trailer begins with a wedding Charlie is attending. When the bride says, “I do,” Charlie just cannot handle the overpowering happiness. With Francesca, Charlie does his very best to not give in to the lure of love. At one point, he tells her, “If you’re looking for a boyfriend, meet my brother.”
The people around him, including his brother, keep urging him to yield to his emotions otherwise life will pass him by.
The film looks interesting and is led by two very capable actors. The director, Jason Winer, has a solid background in comedy and is best known for directed Modern Family episodes and also for co-creating sitcom 1600 Penn.
The synopsis of the film reads, “How does a man who is—literally—paralyzed by happiness find love? Thanks to a condition called cataplexy—a rare disorder that causes him to lose control of his muscles whenever he is overcome by strong emotion, particularly joy—Brooklyn librarian Charlie (Martin Freeman) has learned to carefully edit all delight-triggering people, places, and events out of his life. Family weddings, cute babies, adorable puppies, and, yes, romance are all fraught with peril in Charlie’s carefully managed world. But when the beautiful, spontaneous Francesca (Morena Baccarin) falls for him, the risk-averse Charlie finds himself at a crossroads: suppress his feelings of attraction, or take a chance and let love in? Based on a true story originally featured on This American Life, Ode to Joy is a hilarious and touching look at what happens when we stop being afraid and let ourselves truly live.”
