Review: Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

[dnb at dca.net]

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2008 David N. Butterworth

** (out of ****)


     Poppy (nÃ(c)e Pauline) is a colorful, optimistic, North London
schoolteacher who sees the good in everything and everyone.  She's
bright, spirited, and full of life--a British "AmÃ(c)lie" but without the
underlying subtitles (although those certainly wouldn't have hurt her
cause herein).  She's also rather annoying, too good to be true.  She's
*too* happy-go-lucky, *too* full of life (maybe even herself).  And to
some she's likely more than just rather annoying (the words hellish,
freakish, obnoxious, and grating all come tumbling to mind).  But I
liked her, mostly.  I enjoyed her consistency, her inability to say
nothing, to let sleeping dogs lie when a pithy retort has already formed
itself in her brain and is heading, Mach 1-style, for her lips.  Poppy
is exhausting in that regard; no quip is left unturned, no sarky comment
left unsaid, no rebuttal laid to rest.  Maybe it's a defense mechanism
on Poppy's part.  Maybe, maybe not.  But it's there.  Always.  And you
can count on it.  Poppy, the character, is a creation of Mike Leigh (who
wrote her) and Sally Hawkins (who plays her).  "Happy-Go-Lucky," Leigh's
latest, is a bit of a departure for the director, who's best known for
his working-class dramas--"High Hopes," "Life is Sweet," "Secrets &
Lies," etc.  Sally Hawkins is new to me, although having said that I do
remember seeing her in the Woody Allen film "Cassandra's Dream," in
which she played a thinly disguised version of Scarlet Johansson
(Hawkins was also in Leigh's "Vera Drake" and "All or Nothing,"
apparently).  There's not much plot to the film--Poppy *is* the
plot--but it's when Poppy takes driving lessons with Scott (Eddie
Marsan) that "Happy-Go-Lucky" really comes alive.  The mantra-spouting
Scott is the complete opposite of Poppy, uptight and rigid, and their
scenes together have a real, uncompromising bite.


--
David N. Butterworth, Film Editor
www.offoffoff.com/film | dnb at dca.net