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Bookmark this pageHappy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Director: Mike Leigh
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
Time Out London Issue 1965: April 17 - 23, 2008
User reviews of this film
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- Gerhard said...
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Posted on Apr 10 2009 23:06
I have rolled around sleepless in my bed for nights wondering what good I can find to say about this movie.
I can see what Mike Leigh's intention was. If I get this right then happiness is a decision we make. I want to be happy so I ’m going to be happy.
For heavens sake did I have to sit through an hour and a half of senseless grins on Poppy’s face, unrealistically taking everything on the chin.
Poppy then thankfully meets a Wallace look alike, stares gaumlessly into his face for what seemed like hours and then bonks him on first date.
And what on earth happened to the poor little boy who got beaten up by the little bully? Was he was sacrificed on the altar of the liberal teachers association.
And the tramp scene! What for?
This was simply the most excruciatingly boring and irritating movie I’ve ever seen.
I can see what the intention was - Report as inappropriate
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- Leslie Righter said...
- Posted on Apr 08 2009 17:10 The mandatory cheerfulness police would have us join Poppy in giggling at prescribed frequent intervals throughout the day. Anyone who fails to grin 90% of the time will be labeled as unhappy and in need of reprogramming. No matter if you drive like a maniac and people have to swerve to avoid your menacing Car of Death, as long as you endanger the lives of others while displaying your very best smile, and narrating your actions with brainless babble. This film was a disturbing nightmare, and I was ever so happy when it was finally over. Those of you who agree with me will find the film Office Space a more enjoyable analysis of the subject of mandatory cheerfulness.
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- joe koza said...
- Posted on Mar 23 2009 07:27 'Terminally annoying' are you an academic by any chance. If so then its no wonder you're in such a state. I pity you
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- Wexel said...
- Posted on Mar 22 2009 23:30 Terminally annoying. Mike Leigh and some reviewers here appear to believe that the only choices in life are self-absorbed, Bubbly-on-steroids Polly or pathetic Scot and equally pathetic Polly's pregnant sister. That's true only simply-minded movies, like this one.
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- Juha H said...
- Posted on Mar 06 2009 13:32 Greg's comment was more stupid than anything else printed in this discussion... Social realism and communism... Well, I don't think you have a faintest idea what you are talking about, boyo
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- Greg said...
- Posted on Mar 06 2009 13:16 "‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ is more of a portrait than a story; a film that’s built around one performance" says Time Out critic Dave Calhoun. Well, there ain't any story in it, and the performance is God-awful. Someone else here says: "If you have nothing positive to say, don't say it". Well, this is a film for you, then, socialist-realism for dear comrade.
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- joe koza said...
- Posted on Feb 15 2009 19:19 If you have nothing positive to say, don't say it! Happy Go Lucky is positive that's why it upsets so many miserable people.
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- kill me now said...
- Posted on Feb 15 2009 17:44 Absolute trash.This movie could have starred Hannah Montana.Hard to find anything entertaining.All in all on par with a 3rd rate sitcom.
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- Jean said...
- Posted on Jan 14 2009 15:41 The dialogue was stilted near the start, but got better. Yes, Poppy WAS annoying - but only in the way many real folk are who hold up a mirror to our shortcomings. I came away wondering where on the scale I was between Poppy and her married, settled, trapped sister. I'd choose to be at the happy end!
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- Juha H, Finland said...
- Posted on Jan 13 2009 04:22 It's so sad that you are so right, rob...
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- Rob. said...
- Posted on Jan 13 2009 00:35 Just a quick note to say that it strikes me as ironic that the people who stand to gain the most from this film are seemingly those least likely to 'get it'.
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- jobyjak said...
- Posted on Jan 04 2009 18:35 The genius of this film lies in the fact that it is so hard to be happy, genuinely happy, not happy to get something in return, just quite simply happy. The reason it is so unbelievable is more a reflection on society than on Poppy's character. The film is one of the uniquest I've seen for a while, and that can only be a good thing, but it is far from perfect.
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- Chakorn said...
- Posted on Jan 01 2009 18:55 I like the plot that showed most people around Poppy are realistically unhappy. I also like the arguments that supported why most people in societies become unhappy. Certainly Sally Hawkins delivered the messages within the film absolutely well. I enjoyed her acting. However, I don't like the so unrealistic character of Poppy's since it's very hard for one to believe that a person like Poppy could be real, especially in someone living in London.
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- rog said...
- Posted on Dec 23 2008 23:16 great idea. but sadly couldn't endure it!
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- Jennifer said...
- Posted on Dec 22 2008 23:27 This is the first movie I've ever walked out on in the theater. I completely agree with the others on this board who mention the forced dialogue, poor acting. A good film in my opinion has to have some flow--this film seemed randomly pieced together--disjointed in many ways. In addition to the proper "flow", we have to be able to connect in some way with the characters. While Poppy was altogether annoying, I would have been far more accepting had there been more to her character than the ridiculous laugh and the childlike nature.
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Cast & crew
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Kate O'Flynn, Sarah Niles, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: 15
Duration: 118 mins
UK Release: Apr 18 2008
US Release: Oct 10 2008
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