Happy Together 1989

Chris Wooden is a very serious-minded young man from Chicago who heads to Los Angeles for college, only to discover his roommate is Alex Page, a woman from Park Avenue, NYC. The room is already stacked with her belongings, and he learns they were paired by a computer error. With the dorms full, he reluctantly decides to make the best of the situation rather than chase a new arrangement.

Alex Page is an extroverted, free-spirited party girl who shows little interest in academics and tends to pull Chris into her whirlwind of activity. After a dinner that turns into a string of supermarket nibblings, he Finds himself drawn to her. He surprises her with a bouquet of helium balloons, only to watch her zip off on Slash’s motorcycle, leaving him to ponder what this unconventional pairing might become.

The two are pure opposites: Chris plans and analyzes, while Alex acts on impulse, seizing opportunities as they arise. Their days and nights become a mix of creative sessions and playful chaos—paint-fights during scene work, a game of “Love Songs” that becomes a makeshift musical, and a rooftop sequence where they perform a spontaneous musical number. Each moment pushes them to grow: their professors remark that their work lacks something, and Alex hints that Chris needs a muse, a spark that compels him to write and perform rather than merely fulfill an obligation.

As fate would have it, the two slowly admit that they like each other, and their relationship deepens into something more intimate. This bond begins to reflect in their crafts: Chris’s writing gains warmth and risk, while Alex’s acting finds new nuance as she feeds off him, and they both start investing themselves more fully in their art.

Trouble shatters the budding harmony when Alex volunteers at a kissing booth and receives a nasty message written on the shower wall. The couple fights, but they also find a way to reconnect over a dinner. Chris, however, feels sidelined when other men keep buying Alex drinks, leading to a blazing moment of frustration.

Before midterms, Slash returns and shatters Chris’s arm, forcing him into a plaster cast that effectively ends his ability to study. The only way to pass is to etch the answers onto his cast, a dangerous gamble that could cost him the semester—or his integrity. When caught, he is faced with a stark choice: redo the semester or leave.

In the end, Chris decides to stay and fights to win Alex’s trust, convincing her to take a chance on him. They choose to stay together, finish their degrees, and later relocate to NYC to chase their respective careers, carrying the memory of their tumultuous but transformative college days with them.