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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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- Juha Hyrsky, Finland said...
- Posted on Nov 01 2008 20:23 A wonderful, wonderful film! A Leigh classic just because who succeeds in being different and still concentrating on genuine Leigh themes. Or THE theme: what is it to be happy and what is it NOT to be happy.
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- julio said...
- Posted on Oct 26 2008 04:03 I'm thinking it's a matter of temperament. She is just alive and to me, natural, and is one of the few people who's child is alive and well... How sad that this can't be seen as credible adult anymore... and this is a cdrucial aspect of being a teacher -esp. in Primary school... & in many ways she is far more adult than 'adults' I know, maybe most of them...
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- ecbian said...
- Posted on Oct 26 2008 01:32 A wonderful, life affirming film. I feel sorry for those who don't get it. Maybe they are all relatives of the Scott the driving instructor! Magnificent performances from all and especially Sally Hawkins as the wonderful Poppy. Optimists of the world unite, and don't let the self-important "drearies" either get you down or stop you seeing this gem.
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- UK said...
- Posted on Oct 24 2008 22:03 a total waste of the lottery funds from the wallet of working classes to present the working woman -poPpy is the most poo-oopy character i have ever seen and she keeps giggling like a bunny -a real claptrap by the man who has made a career out of pseudo-intellectual self indulgence and -PLEASE NO MORE WASTAGE OF NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDS
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- wojtek said...
- Posted on Oct 24 2008 13:45 So you weren't charmed. I was charmed and delighted unexpectably by this film. For once I agree with the 'professional' reviewers of this film. Those who rant and rave at this film's badness should take a pill and then immediately see a psychotherapist. If you want real cultural quality and appreciation do not stay in england.
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- Dan said...
- Posted on Oct 24 2008 09:16 Well overall i agree with most of the comments about the film, but really if the plot of the film was predictable, wouldent that be boring? The story was different from any other choice of film I would of ever watched, but adding to that point the 'difference' is what makes it more interesting.
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- Juanjo said...
- Posted on Oct 21 2008 17:10 I come from the Basque Contry(far away from Leigh´s urban contexts), but I am one of his fans. I loved "Secret and lies" and-well- this last film is still good but minor one. It´s based on Poppy´s character while "Secrets..."was a total film. Anyway go on making films,Mike Leigh! And thank you. Juanjo.
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- Laura said...
- Posted on Oct 20 2008 08:41 Incredibly silly and childish. The rythm, characters and plot do not bring anything fresh. Some public abandonned the theater...
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- Jim said...
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Posted on Oct 20 2008 07:43
Giving Mike Leight the benefit of the doubt, I can see what he was trying to achieve with this film. The execution however, was awful. I have enjoyed previous Mike Leigh films, (Life is Sweet, Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing), but the central character in this story is so overdrawn as to be totally unbearable.
Yes, we get it, she's 'Happy-go-lucky', frankly she's certifiable. I mean, I know a few primary school teachers, and yes, they do become infantalised from lack of contact with adults, but this was going too far.
As for the dialogue, I've rarely had to endure such unsubtle moralising in a film, the creaks from the wooden acting were audible.
I'm sorry, but this is a 1 star film, AVOID. - Report as inappropriate
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- paul said...
- Posted on Oct 19 2008 12:05 THIS WOMAN IS SO ANNOYING. AWFUL MOVIE ALL THESE MIKE FANS ARE FAWNING. POPPY WOULD HAVE NO FRIENDS IN REAL LIFE. HER JOKES WERE ALL CRAP.
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- alexandro said...
- Posted on Oct 18 2008 19:43 people of britain have lost their souls, this means they are not moved by deeply relevant films like this. You need a heart and a soul to appreciate this film,evidently this is in short supply. Let all who can abandon this rotten island and seek refuge in a far better cultural europe.
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- Pat said...
- Posted on Oct 18 2008 02:51 I am a big fan of mike leigh - Secrets and lies is one of the best films ever, I can't believe this is from the same director, Poppy is the most irritating characters ever! The driving instructor should have thrown her out of the car! I watched the whole film waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Very boring, weak story.
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- joe koza said...
- Posted on Oct 09 2008 12:05 Superb portrayal of a complex and positive personality. Definate oscar material. Detractors go for a brain scan.
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- Paul said...
- Posted on Oct 08 2008 21:43 I loved this film, Poppy was so annoying but I still loved her so I can understand the why people hated this film. It takes all sorts I guess.
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- henry said...
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Posted on Oct 07 2008 22:44
i had the same problems with this as i did with most mike leigh films. workshopping characters from scratch on concensus with the cast as he says he does with all his films simply means the lack of a personal and hence truly deep characters. poppy didn't really seem believable to me, i'm afraid. others may disagree but i can't see it. maybe i'm wrong,
having said that the characters were interesting- if poppy was a tad annoying, and the film had lots of real set ups which were excellent- eddie marsan's character was great. it was kind of sad that the essence of the film meant that not too much happened.
all in all very conflicted and perhaps i need longer to process it, but well worth seeing. - Report as inappropriate
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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