"When I was your age, I knew one thing: I was going to be happy." When Matty tells her teenage daughter this, we know that Matty has lost her illusion of how easy it is to be happy. When we first see her she looks as though the world has beaten her down. Things have been hard lately. Her husband left her for a younger woman (who doesn't even iron his shirts). It's been five months, three weeks and two days; she's been counting. And then leaving the supermarket she back into a truck and gets into an argument with the driver.

Moscow, Belgium (named for a working class neighborhood of Ghent) is a look at the possibilities of finding happiness. In the midst of all the things that are going wrong in Matty's life, the truck she manages to back into is driven by Johnny who is more than ten years younger than she. Johnny takes a liking to her and begins to work himself into her good graces. The problem is that she still wants to get back together with her husband, so she's torn between the opportunity that Johnny represents and the dimming possibility of reconciliation. Even when things seem to be going well for Matty, she rarely cracks a smile. She learns of Johnny's dark side, but is that enough to keep them apart?

Matty had developed her coping strategies through these troubled times. She has her barriers well in place. For example, when Johnny compares his attraction to her to that of DaVinci for Mona Lisa, she tells him that Mona Lisa isn't smiling; rather she is trapped within herself, eaten by her inner sorrow. But Johnny sees through her defenses. He notes that she covers her food with mustard so she won't taste or feel anything. Slowly her defenses come down and she's ready to take a chance on being happy, but will it work?

It should be noted that death always seems to be in the background throughout the film. A man regularly comes to the post office where Matty works to bring stacks of funeral notices about the recently deceased (and uses the time to flirt lightly with her). Matty learns her daughter's girlfriend is a palliative care nurse, who cares for dying patients whom she finds to be "real". The point of death being here, even in such small ways, is a reminder that everyone will die and if you don't live seeking happiness, you will never find it.

As I watched the film, I wondered if "happiness" is enough of a reason for the choices we make in life. To be sure, everyone should have the opportunity to be happy in their lives. But is that the only reward that we should pay attention to? Is personal happiness the only happiness that matters, or should the happiness of others be slotted into the equation somehow? These questions lead me to be a bit more ambivalent about the ending than I think the film was going for. While the film ends with the hope of happiness finally coming into Matty's life, I'm not sure I trust that optimism.