Who is Duncan in Happiness for Beginners? We discuss the 2023 Netflix comedy-drama film, which contains spoilers.
If you are looking for a romantic comedy to cuddle up with on a rainy evening, you could probably do worse than Happiness for Beginners.
Based on the novel of the same name by Katherine Center, the story follows newly divorced Helen, searching for direction in her life and embarking on an intense hiking tour through part of The Appalachian Trail.
Along the way, she encounters lots of characters on journeys of their own, as well as Jake, who turns out to be the best friend of her aggravating younger brother.
However, as events progress, Helen and Jake seem to start to find common ground.
Helen starts to understand Jake a little more as revelations about his health are revealed, and it seems Jake has started to fall in love with Helen.
I don’t want to spoil too much in this short accompanying article, so let me move on and answer the question that maybe one or two of you are interested in: who is Duncan in Happiness for Beginners?
Who is Duncan in Happiness for Beginners, and why is he important?
Duncan is Helen’s annoying younger brother and has an air of devil may care about him, providing a lot of comic relief in the screenplay. Although he is irritating. it is pretty much Duncan who convinces Helen to go on the trip in the first place, so he is automatically integral to the plot.
As well as this, he is the best friend of Jake, which initially is problematic for Helen.
As events unfold, we do get to see another side of Duncan, and thankfully, a little time is spent on the character, giving her more depth than we are first privy to.
Duncan is central to the leads in the film, making him an important part of the events that the characters go through, including a final scene that I don’t want to spoil here.
Who plays Duncan in Happiness for Beginners?
Duncan is played by the talented Alexander Koch in this movie. Alexander was born in Detroit, Michigan, where he would go on to be involved in high school plays. This would lead to him attending theatre school at DePaul University.
His first film was a short independent production called The Ghosts.
He would play the part of Frank in a story set in the fifties about biker gangs and forbidden love.
The performance earned him accolades as the film would be shown at festivals internationally.
It was after this performance that he would land a major role in the major sci-fi series Under the Dome, playing the part of Junior Rennie.
What is Alexander Koch known for?
Film and TV actor Koch has done various productions. He was in thirty-nine episodes of sci-fi drama Under the Dome from 2013-2015. He was Pete Daily in three episodes of Lucifer in 2020.
Alexander was also in the 2020 release Big Fork, where he played Kipton.
