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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

Roberto Olivero, USA said...

Posted on Dec 07 2008 07:09 Great film making, again from Mr. Leigh. Inspiring, the portrayal of a truly well-adjusted female protagonist who is both child-like and competent, able to stand her ground, confront life's challenges & adversities without loosing her sense of self, and embrace life's opportunities whole-heartedly. We owe Mr. Leigh one huge THANK YOU for giving us Poppy, a true hero.

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Tom Russell said...

Posted on Dec 02 2008 06:15 Thank you for your negative reviews of this film. They really helped to clarify why I identified so much with this film. Grumpy, self absorbed people started to ironically turn me into a "Scott". I loved this film because of the acting and it's simple question. Life is short, would you rather be a "Poppy" or a "Scott"? I live in the USA, believe me, "Scotts" suck! See Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, etc. Negativity=Death

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cq said...

Posted on Nov 17 2008 18:33 Ignore the reviews. This movie was awful. Even the music was terrible. Poppy was like a female Jerry Lewis: Goofy sight gags and idiotic facial expressions. No plot, terrible dialogue, unrealistic and annoying. I wanted to wring her neck after 10 minutes. The scene in the park was dark, all right, especially when it was an invitation for rape. Only the driving instructor saved the day, and that's because he was able to yell at her like I wanted to do. Even respected movie critics can be wrong, so heed my warning and AVOID AT ALL COSTS. I would feel like a liar if I gave this movie even one star.

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SusanA said...

Posted on Nov 16 2008 15:39 Those who were looking for a plot didn't understand that this was a character study movie. The more I think about it the more I love it. While Poppy IS annoying, I was relieved to learn that she wasn't masking some deep unhappiness, she wasn't, as Scott accused, focused on everyone liking her, she just honestly wanted to make other people happy - her students, her sisters, the homeless guy, and although it backfired horribly, Scott. But she clearly knew how to handle him when he got out of control. Funny how her optimism makes some people so ANGRY.

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Emily said...

Posted on Nov 14 2008 16:54 i completely disagree i love mike leighs films but this was utterly crap and not like his others. he needs to up his game a little. poppy was annoying and irrelvent. my main problem with this film was there was absoloutley NO story line to follow. i think i fell asleep actually. sort it out Mike!!

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Juha Hyrsky, Finland said...

Posted on Nov 13 2008 08:21 As I said, I totally agree with joe and julio as far as the film itself is considered but to be happy with the label of "an elitist"... that's not really what I like and possibly not Leigh either. In the very heart of being an elitist lies the idea of "me and my pals knowing better" and "me and my pals being better". I see Leigh fighting this sort of thinking. I see him penetrate deeper into the the core of being a human being where all ideas are relevant even though they might be even destructive or annoying at least. Well, Britain IS a nation devided by classes, so obviously it's just my Nordic ideal of looking at things that makes me wonder....

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joe said...

Posted on Nov 13 2008 07:29 the comment made by julio was very well considered and articulate, i agree wholeheartedly with it. What's so wrong about being an elitist when the need arises

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Juha hyrsky,Finland said...

Posted on Nov 11 2008 13:16 Please joe... Don't be so harsh on these people who don't like Leigh. I'd like to think I'm not an elitist even though I like his films but you make me sound I am...

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Julio said...

Posted on Nov 11 2008 11:43 I posted a slightly shorter, less articulate note about 3 weeks ago, let me just repeat it better, on hindisght:) It gets six stars from me because I see Poppy as a very alive human being- who is very child-like (irrepressibly) but in a good way, that does not preclude the fact that as a person she is also more adult than some of the characters she meets along her 'way'... But it is a study in human temerament - as a lot of leigh's films also are...: the difference of hers and the driving-instructor is excruciating, but she seems to accept and understand him (and not- evidently vice versa). Her temperament is very apt for being a primary school-teacher (as I said, she has a deep, caring, compassionate adult side, that prob can be very mature)... And the people who do not like it, nor think that her interactions are 'real' (I think they are very genuine and believable) have a different temperament that just cannot trust this way-of-being which I feel - as others evidently so- is a shame, It shows where one is perhaps 'blocked', cos if she was your child (2 grow up into a person like this), wouldn't you love her?... But perhaps this is the bias of my temperament... Don't know if I can put this point very well... it is delicate...

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Xanthe said...

Posted on Nov 10 2008 12:28 This film was possibly one of the worst films I've ever been subjected to. I can honestly say I am gutted that I wasted 118hrs of my life watching it. Within the first half an hour I wanted to get up and leave but my boyfriend begged me to continue watching as he'd read 'good reviews'! The main character was extremely annoying and totally unbelievable and the plot actually went nowhere. As the minutes went by we longed for something to happen only for our prayers to be left unanswered. Honestly - harsh but true, an episode of 'Katie and Peter the next chapter' would be more entertaining.

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JonoD said...

Posted on Nov 10 2008 12:14 Really struggled with this movie. Like other reviewers found the banter between characters rushed, false and cheesy. I alos found the main character Poppy to be particulary agonising to watch. Both she and the story we felt were one dimensional. We were ple3ading for it to go anywhere.
Felt embarisewd that I had made other people watch this movie and would not recomend it to anyone, Not for me.

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Juha Hyrsky, Finland said...

Posted on Nov 09 2008 06:44 The power of "Happy-go-lucky" lies in the perspective that the other films by Leigh gives. To me, Leigh repeats the same simple questions and answers about life over and over again: is life worth living?Yes, it is.Why is life worth living?Because we can always find ways of defending the richness of life from "my space", the key phrase of "Happy-go-lucky".
Surely it would be interesting to know about Poppy's childhood (which we actually learn a great deal about through the life of her sisters) but that's not how Leigh works. And that's exactly one of the reasons why Leigh is so unique.

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joe said...

Posted on Nov 08 2008 18:05 diane the psychotherapist misses the point. why go into psychobabble just let the music of the film take you instead of thinking in terms of poppy being "a defensive mechanism" just look at those previous words, where is our lost innocence? and weep!

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Diane said...

Posted on Nov 08 2008 17:52 I'm a psychotherapist and have been "accused" of being "too happy" throughout MY OWN life. I loved the idea of this movie and want to defend it. However, from a purely storytelling point of view a good story always shows the character growing or changing in some way. I suppose Poppy kind of does. I wanted to hear one sentence come out of her that was actually a statement and not a joking one-liner. I saw her behavior as a classic defense mechanism. I kept wondering when the movie was going to take us back to her childhood and show us how she became this way. I see her personality of joking to every statement as enjoyable at first but she never lets it go to become even a little bit "serious" and by that I don't mean negative. Both my husband and I were disappointed we didn't get to know more about the characters. The message of the film about attitude is pretty basic but I would have loved to have gotten to know more about Poppy. Her constant joking and bantering would tire me in real life and I'm a very calm, tolerating person. I just have huge question marks in my head about what this movie was really telling us. I do love London so much and hearing the wonderful accent and seeing the sites of Camden made me pine for a city I love to visit. Can;t wait to come back!!
Diane from Milwaukee, WI USA

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jase said...

Posted on Nov 03 2008 22:53 As someone else posted here, I am not motivated to seek out film reviews websites often, but this one did it! I actually wanted to see what other people thought of this film, because I was baffled by the yawning chasm between my experience of Happy go Lucky, and the reviews I read before I went, which were universally positive, some absolute raves. It's reassuring to me to see that other movie-goers didn't share this view, because I sure didn't either.
Altho I found Poppy intensely annoying, that would have been fine, I've enjoyed plenty of films with unlikable characters. What was unforgivable to me was the wooden and unconvincing dialogue. It had no rythm, was often gabbled, and did not flow naturally at all, the actors seemed to be waiting on edge for the last line to finish so they could say theirs. In a film that relies heavily on dialogue, getting this so horribly wrong doesn't leave much room to get anything right.
Having said that, I found some scenes powerful, particularly the driving instructor, and Poppy's slowly dawning realisation that she has let a dangerous person too close because of her sweet nature and urge to help one and all. Not nearly enough to save a fundamentally flawed film tho.

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