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Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Director: Mike Leigh

Time Out rating

Average user rating

192 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

Justin Cox said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 22:19 Was so bad I left after 30 mins and snuck into 21 instead which was a far better way to spend a lazy Sunday afetrnoon at the flicks.

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Sutton said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 21:49 I also went to see this film on the back of the great reviews from the film critic, but I should have remembered it is a Mike Leigh film. Why do the critics fawn over him, sure it's good to push British produce, but not if it's rubbish. Seemed like the longest two hours....the film went no where fast, the Poppy character was irritating and the story was none existent. Sure it's an observational film and perhaps worthy, but for enjoyment, save your cash. The only plus was that the driving instructor was quite amusing and gave a good performance.

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Alex said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 20:08 This is time you will never get back. Where does one start? Critics should be ashamed of themselves for kissing Mike Leighs backside. Irritating characters, implausible plot, insulting to teachers, and just plainly unfunny. Do not say you were not warned!!!!!

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Valerie said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 19:59 The worst film I have seen for a long time. There was no plot and I would disagree that Poppy is 'Happy Go Lucky - more like seriously affected. I went with an open mind but can't understand why anyone would give it so many stars.

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Betty said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 18:11 I came out fo the cinema and told the two people waiting in the queue to go and get their money back. My friend fell asleep, I optimistically watched the whole way through wating for something to happen. When Poppy got a bad back I hoped it was something fatal so we could at least have a plot. When my friend woke up we both agreed we had faces like the judges on Britain's got Talent when confronted with a tuneless no-hope. playing a tune on a sink plunger.
We went to see the film because it has a 4/5 star rating on several websites but sorry to say THE EMPOROR HAS NO CLOTHES.

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Pete Cook said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 11:31 When reading the comments by the poor grumpy-grumps who take such issue with this film, the thoughts of another mancunian son who came to London were brought to mind. Perhaps the point of 'Happy-Go-Lucky' is that, as Stephen Patrick said;
" t's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind"
And if you're having a bad day today and a bit down in the dumps, chin up chum, give this film a go, might make you feel a bit better?

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Reynard Fox said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 10:51 Dreadful. The kind of film about which critics pontificate and write twaddle when they're too afraid of telling a director like Mike Leigh that his film stinks. They'd rather delude themselves into believing they're watching a piece of subtle art than admit the plainly obvious - that this irritating piece of film-making isn't funny, isn't clever, doesn't "reflect on the state of...blah blah", and simply sticking a famous director's name on it doesn't change a damn thing. People who think this is anything except trash are just trying desperately to pretend they're somehow smarter than the rest of us.

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steve said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 01:11 As a true to life narrative and commentary on London 2008, as I sat in the Holloway Road Odeon, watching the streets outside flash up on teh silver screen, I was torn between the class acting and the grim realisation that modern London is a great place from which to emigrate.....

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Frances said...

Posted on Apr 19 2008 23:37 Quite possibly the worst film I have ever seen. Shallow, and banal beyond bearing, insulting to social workers and children in distress, I was moved only to rage at watching it. The characters in "Notting Hill" are more 3D.

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Verity Healey said...

Posted on Apr 16 2008 09:50 Much has been said about how irritating the 'Poppy' character can be or might be seen at first. For me though the character is one imbued with a sense of humanity and spirituality, some one who is not afraid to interact with and try to understand those perhaps less well off and isolated from the society portrayed in the film. For me this humane- ness, as with all Mike Leigh's films, is what makes this film need several viewings in order to see what it really has to offer. I'm certainly going to be seeing it a few more times!

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Glenn Marshall said...

Posted on Apr 14 2008 23:09 At the beginning you think this must be the most irritating woman set on film, but her outlook on life soon becomes infectious. A wonderful, uplifting film, perfectly cast....but believe it or not, my driving instructor was even more scary than this one!

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Anthony Robinson said...

Posted on Feb 16 2008 15:57 I was lucky enough to attend the crew screening, and still brings a smile to my face when i think about Poppy,her bicycle, her club mates and those dreaded driving lessons..
With the movie having teachers, both school and driving, in central roles, it demonstrates that the twists and turns of our lives are our real teachers, should we learn to take the lessons they teach us to heart.
Poppy's infectious and posiive attitude to life stayed with me for days, and credit to Mike Leigh and his team for pulling off a real London gem of a movie, to which I'll be "Happy-to-Pay" for and see again!

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