Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Director: Mike Leigh
Year: 2008
Rating: 
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
You could be forgiven for thinking that Poppy (Sally Hawkins), the hero of writer/director Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, is a blithering idiot. She goes around with a goofy smile on her face, giving a cheery hello to everyone, chats up glum strangers even when it becomes obvious that they want to be left alone, constantly makes jokes that aren’t funny and prattles on about nothing much in particular. My wife was so annoyed by Poppy that she made me turn off the DVD — she was in a bad mood for hours.
But Poppy isn’t really a complete idiot, in spite of appearances. Mike Leigh tips his hand early on when he shows Poppy and her friends in a club, dancing to the famous song “Common People.” The lyrics go “you’ll never fail like common people, you’ll never watch your life slide out of view, and dance and drink and screw, because there’s nothing else to do.” The song is talking about Poppy and their friends, but they’re completely oblivious to the larger meaning of the song. Or are they? Is the way Poppy reacts to life a conscious decision, a way of keeping the grim reality of life at bay? Maybe, but Poppy is actually even more complex than that.
She keeps saying that she only wants other people to be happy and that she loves her life. And the funny thing is that she believes it. She’s managed to hypnotize herself into a Pollyanna-ish worldview, but really she’s just whistling past the graveyard. My geuss is when she gets to the age of 50, her looks are gone, she’s a spinster, her health is shot, and she’s broke, Poppy will have a tougher time maintaining her facade of good cheer.
The film throws what we think would be challenges to her worldview in Poppy’s face, like the little boy in her primary school class who hits other children or Scott (Eddie Marsan), the driving instructor who’s a ball of inchoate rage. Scott has rightfully divined that life is a fixed game, but Mike Leigh paints him as a loony, having him make racist and classist comments left and right. Leigh wants us to believe that people who are immune to Poppy’s good cheer are damaged, probably by some sort of childhood trauma. Leigh postulates that these losers reacted to that trauma by erecting defenses that may have helped them survive while they were being abused, but the abuse eventually went away, and now their accomodation has no function at all, except to keep them encased in a microclimate of abject misery.
I don’t know. Personally, if I was forced to bunk with Poppy for a week, and there were any sharp knives around, I’d probably cut my throat.
Considering that Happy-Go-Lucky is supposed to be a comedy, there’s an awful lot of philosophical content in the picture. Is it entertaining? Well, there are a few laughs sprinkled through Happy-Go-Lucky, but I found it more painful than anything else, which is not unusual for a Mike Leigh film.
The funniest, and most lovable character in the film is a flamenco teacher (Karina Fernandez), who labors in vain to get her British students to emulate the gypsy character of pride, rage, and revenge, so that they will be effective Flamenco dancers.
Happy-Go-Lucky is a lot easier to admire than to love, and as for Poppy herself, in real life I’d loathe her on sight.
If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!
« Drunken Master III - How To Lose 90 Minutes Of Your Life | Home | Tiger On The Beat II - Chumps, Cons and Cops »