Happy Tears is an American independent comedy-drama film by Mitchell Lichtenstein. It stars Parker Posey, Demi Moore, Rip Torn, Sebastian Roché and Ellen Barkin. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on 11 February 2009 and was released theatrically in the United States on 19 February 2010.
Jayne (Posey) and Laura (Moore) play sisters helping their crude but endearing father Joe (Torn) deal with age-related health and mental problems. Wealthy by marriage, Jayne is otherwise psychologically fragile. Conversely, Laura has her hands full with domestic responsibilities but is considerably more grounded. Upon returning to their childhood home to help their father, they face difficult, frequently comic situations. The home, their deceased mother's effects, and their father's eccentricities evoke memories and sentiments, especially for Jayne. The sisters bicker over the seriousness of their father's condition. They also contend with a romantic dalliance between Joe and his equally eccentric, wigged-out "nurse" Shelly (Barkin). The struggle to balance familial duties with their own strained lives suggests a more meaningful family connection they may not have had as children.
Happy Tears is a 1964 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. It formerly held the record for highest auction price for a Lichtenstein painting.
On November 13, 2002, Happy Tears surpassed Kiss II, which had sold for $6.0 million in May 1990, by selling for $7.1 million at Christie's auction house in New York. In November 2005, the 1963 work In the Car surpassed Happy Tears' Lichtenstein work record auction price, when it sold for $16.2 million.
Happy Tears was acquired at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, in 1964. It did not change hands until it was sold again on November 13, 2002, at auction at Christie's in New York. The owner lent this work for exhibition twice in the late 1960s. From November 1967 to May 1968, the exhibit made stops at the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Tate Gallery (London), Kunsthalle Bern (Bern), and Kestner-Gesellschaft (Hannover). From September to November 1969, it was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It was then displayed at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City in 2008.