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Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Director: Mike Leigh

Time Out rating

Average user rating

201 reviews

Synopsis

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a 30-year-old Londoner with a bright outlook on life. She loves her job, she loves her friends, she loves her freedom. Mike Leigh's new film follows her over a few weeks one spring as she learns to drive and embarks on a new romance.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Sally Hawkins is a real delight in Mike Leigh’s new film as Poppy, a 30-year-old Londoner with a bubbly nature and an ever-present laugh that teeters between lovable and annoying. Hawkins’ performance, and Leigh’s harnessing of it, is a tease: when we first see Poppy, cycling through the West End and joking with a grumpy bookshop assistant before joining her friends for a late-night drunken session, we don’t know what to make of her. She’s loud, joyful and indulges in terrible jokes; surely there’s something wrong with her?

The trick that Leigh and Hawkins finally pull off so cleverly by the end of 'Happy-Go-Lucky’ is that we’re entirely in cahoots with her. Poppy is a mirror to us all: if we find her blind optimism and sunny nature hard to swallow, perhaps there’s something wrong with us instead? By then, too, we know that Poppy is not the blinkered soul we may first think: she is compassionate, perceptive and harbours her own sadnesses like the rest of us.

Leigh always finds plot in character, and ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ is more of a portrait than a story; a film that’s built around one performance. He is less concerned here, unlike, say, ‘Secrets & Lies’ and ‘Vera Drake’, with following a driving narrative than with minutely observing Poppy through her relationships with others, whether it’s the kids she teaches at her primary school, her repressed driving instructor (Eddie Marsan, excellently playing a heavy-duty bag of hang-ups), her close friend and flatmate Zoe (Alexis Zegerman) or her older, more settled colleague Heather (Sylvestra Le Touzel), whom she joins at flamenco lessons after work. In that sense, it’s comparable to ‘Naked’.

It’s a study in sadness versus happiness, a study in teachers and the taught, a study in how we carry with us everyday the burdens of what we have and haven’t learned. You know you’re watching something both delightfully light-footed and acutely meaningful when Leigh moves so nimbly between scenes at Poppy’s school, her flamenco class and her driving lessons. There’s also a wonderfully moving scene, darker and more poetic in tone, when Poppy encounters a tramp late at night. It’s a funny film – a surprise perhaps after ‘Vera Drake’ – and, crucially, it aches with truth.

Author: Dave Calhoun 2008-02-13 15:43:17

Time Out London Issue 1965: April 17 - 23, 2008

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User reviews of this film

jadespade said...

Posted on Feb 01 2010 10:20 awww i loved this film....i wish i knew poppy. she is such a lovely character. this is such an uplifting happy film that really made my day.

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Anna said...

Posted on Dec 16 2009 11:33 Truly brilliant. So thought provoking and brilliantly acted. My sort of fim. Well done.

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Spongebob said...

Posted on Dec 16 2009 09:54 It was ok, if a bit dull; an anti-climax after the hype. Leigh usually does better. This time a bit heavy handed with the 'caring' nature of the character, who was mostly annoying. Sally Hawkins is lovely though, and at least you get to see her semi-nekked!

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Whatalog said...

Posted on Dec 09 2009 10:13 Awful. This film actually stressed me out watching it. I have no idea where this underlying sadness that poppy is supposed to have is.
I found her to be one of the most unsympathetic characters ever commited to film. Patronising, ignorant and downright rude at times. I found myself rooting for the racist on the edge driving instructor because she was so dense and rude to him throughout!
I found her to be a 2 dimensional creation to be honest and as for the film overall Im fighting to find any sort of message or real point to any of it. alot of the film felt a bit "tacked on" to me - Such as Scotts racist view - a ploy in which to demonise him and gain sympahty for her maybe? and the scene with the tramp - analyse it all you want and find it a scene in which we see poppy as truley caring and able to set this troubled mind at ease because she truly is compassionate and blah blah blah - if anything that scene is an insult to mental health and mental health carers as if they are missing a trick by not just being nice and communicating.
Love Mike Leigh - a genius director and a living legend - but I can only put this films critical success down to emperors new clothes.

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YAV said...

Posted on Dec 08 2009 21:53 watchable, but only if you have no life (likfe me) poppy was gorgeous - wanted to punch her in the face contunally however. Scott was pathetic. - Not the actors fault - just the very crappy lines, pseuso new world order crap he came out with. DO your homework Leigh

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Angela said...

Posted on Dec 08 2009 13:54 I loved this film from beginning to end, I got it, there was a few things that Poppy said that I related to, its a good way to live, always look on the bright side of things, i know sometimes we can't but the majority of the time we can, life really isn't that bad

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Round 2 said...

Posted on Dec 07 2009 00:47 Dearie me. It's just an average, quite sweet loook into an average person's life. The angry driving instructor to me was interesting- in place as he is the polar opposite of daft polly but is also a clear example of what a worrying society we are still living in. Vickers- apart from feeling depressed sometimes about films that dont float yr boat I am sure u have an extreemly interesting, furfilling and 'un/boring' life- may be Mike Leigh can make a film about you? Ha ;-)

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Vicker said...

Posted on Dec 07 2009 00:23 I did not enjoy this film at all, although I had expected to enjoy it from the impressions given by the trailers... also because I enjoyed Secrets and Lies so much. But this film is NOT Secrets and Lies. I was really disappointed and was actually depressed by the film. The characters aren't developed, and the main character IS annoying, because she doesn't develop or do anything through the film. It was like spending time inside someone else's not-very-interesting life for 90 mins, There were promising bits, such as the visit to the pregnant sister, which recalled the familial angst of Secrets and Lies, but this was only a glimmer. The fact that the driving instructor was probably a serial killer in the making was made to appear irrelevant beside Poppy's glib and pointless existence. If only there was a bit more substance to her character then the film would have been worth watching... I imagine critics enjoyed it because this kind of mindless, pointless London life is the desirable norm amongst their ilk, and I was left feeling depressed by its hollowness.

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anna said...

Posted on Dec 06 2009 23:48 i cant believe the negative comments on this page. take the film for what it was - a light hearted account/ look in on a good natured HAPPY GO LUCKY person's life (there is a bit of a clue in the title oh great film critics!). she was a little annoying at times, but people are! But its usually those who come across as more superior than others that are much more irritating than a person who is harmless and caring like poppy! I thought it also kind of gave a good reflection of modern relationships and experiences. easy watching, admittedly, but it left me feeling pretty happy and gave me a few laughs along the way. i think this is all it was intending to do really. Made a nice end to my sunday eve - so thank you mr leigh!

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Nixfromoz said...

Posted on Oct 21 2009 10:32 This film celebrates a heart of not only happiness, but gratitude, faith and love. It should be a lesson to all that view it, especially those who dislike it. If more were to follow it's example, it would indeed cure most of the world's ills in today's society. Focusing on what is good and right in our lives is far more satisfying than devoting our thoughts to stress and negativity. Think about it. . .

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meme said...

Posted on Oct 13 2009 01:51 Why is it that people who liked the film slam personally those who don't?

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Leslie R said...

Posted on Oct 13 2009 00:50 The best actor in this film, Eddie Marsan, (the driving instructor) is going to be in the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Jude Law and Robert Downey, Jr. At least something good came out of this dreadful film!

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joanna moraitis said...

Posted on Oct 12 2009 20:14 one of the best films I have seen for a long time

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Gerhard said...

Posted on Oct 11 2009 23:31 Sad, sad, sadly insignificant cinematography.

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joe koza said...

Posted on Oct 11 2009 06:13 The last comment was very telling from a sad man who lost his 'happy' girlfriend! He condemns the film, yet gives it four stars! For one thing, this woman is not childish but childlike, an important difference. As for all the negative people in the world, well they are the architects of their own misfortune!

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