Whimsy is a tricky thing. If it comes to you naturally, like it does to, say, Bill Forsyth or John Patrick Shanley, you end up with delightful films like Local Hero and Joe Versus the Volcano. If you try to force it, you end up with something like H Is for Happiness, though its intentions are nothing but good.

The sweet natured Australian film focuses on super-precocious 12-year-old Candice (Daisy Axon), who is as chipper (and verbose) as can be and never lets anything get her down, even though everyone thinks she’s odd and mean girl Jen (Alessandra Tognini) bullies her and calls her SN, short for special needs.

Additionally, Candice’s home life is less than ideal. A couple of years ago, her baby sister died of sudden infant death syndrome, and her mom, who was once vibrant and full of life, barely leaves her bed. Her father, a computer programmer, has retreated into his job. Her uncle, who is called Rich Uncle Brian (Joel Jackson), loves her dearly, but he and her dad had a falling out over a business they ran together that made her uncle, well, fabulously rich and her dad not so much. So, Candice decides to make her family happy and whole again with an array of outlandish stunts and ideas.

I should add she meets a boy, Douglas (Wesley Patton), who is new to her class and fervently believes he is from an alternate universe and stranded on Earth. His way of getting back to his own dimension involves jumping out of a high tree at a particular time of day. Candice addresses him as Douglas Benson from Another Dimension.

At one point, as a birthday gift, Douglas gives her a bra with balloons that are inflatable and deflate when a string is pulled, because he overheard her say she wanted breasts. Candice wears it on her birthday celebration. While the family and Douglas are on the docks, Candice suddenly jumps in the water, hoping both her dad and uncle will attempt to save her and bond. Twenty feet deep, realizing this plan isn’t working, she pulls the string on her bra, inflating the balloons, which shoot her up and out of the water by a good 10 feet.

If any of this sounds forced, it is. The characters here don’t act much like real-life people at all, though the actors give it the college try. Axon is a particularly charming and delightful young performer who simply can’t shoulder all of this quirkiness and ridiculousness. Of course, fear and loss are behind Candice and Benson’s actions, and these kids are overreaching in their attempt to deal with it. Although there’s an honest core in the center of the story, the filmmakers don’t trust it. Instead, they surround it with ersatz magic realism—a miniature pony wanders the woods where Candice and Douglas meet. There is no explicable reason for this. It’s just something that happens.

Also, no matter how original the film wants to be, and it does, the story boils down to adults in distress and a child who is more emotionally cogent and smarter than anyone around. The story is actually mundane once you strip the cutesy varnish off it: The bully softens and becomes a friend, everyone who is at odds reconcile, and a young girl essentially brings her family together through good cheer and will. It’s been done a thousand times before by other filmmakers who rely on the audience’s intelligence and sympathy rather than throw off-kilter and oddball scenarios to distract viewers from realizing that there’s not a whole lot there.