Happy-go-lucky

"Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" is the story of a good woman. As simple as that. We first see Poppy peddling her bike through London, and smiling all the time to herself. She stops at a bookshop and tries to cheer up the dour proprietor. No, that isn't right. She doesn't want to change him, just infect him with her irrepressible good nature. She may not even be aware of how she operates. Then her bike is stolen. She takes that right in stride.

Poppy is one of the most difficult roles any actress could be assigned. She must smile and be peppy and optimistic at (almost) all times, and do it naturally and convincingly, as if the sunshine comes from inside. That's harder than playing Lady Macbeth. Sally Hawkins been in movies before, including Leigh's "Vera Drake" and Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream," but this is her star-making role. She was named best actress at Berlin 2008. I will deliberately employ a cliche: She is a joy to behold.

At first, that seems to be all there is to it. The movie will be about Poppy, and her job as an elementary schoolteacher, and the lessons she is taking in flamenco dancing, and her flatmate Zoe, and her sister, Suzy, and how she starts to feel about Tim, the school counselor who comes to assist her with a troubled little boy. That would almost be enough. But "Happy-Go-Lucky" is about a great deal more, and goes very much deeper.

As she works with the little boy, we see that she's not at all superficial, but can listen, observe, empathize and find the right note in response. In another scene, which may not seem to fit but is profoundly effective, she comes across a homeless man in the shadows under a rail line, and talks with him. He's one of those people who chants the same thing, ferociously, over and over. She listens to him, speaks with him, asks if he's hungry. She is not afraid. She's worried about him. I think he's aware of that, and it soothes him. It is possible nobody has spoken to him in days or weeks.

So we get these glimpses into Poppy's deeper regions. Then she decides to take driving lessons and meets Scott, the instructor. He is played brilliantly by Eddie Marsan, an English comedian who as an actor often finds morose, worrywart roles. See him as the pessimistic Jewish father in the recent "Sixty-Six." Scott is an angry man. Oddly for a driving instructor, he seems to channel road rage. His system for helping her remember the rear-view mirror and the two side mirrors involve naming them after fallen angels. He screams at her. No one could drive with Scott at their side.

Any other person would quit working with Scott after one lesson. Not Poppy. Does she think she can help him? Their relationship descends into an extraordinary scene during which we suddenly see right inside both of them and understand better what Poppy's cheerfulness is all about. We also see Scott's terrifying insecurity and self-loathing; Marsan is spellbinding.

This is Mike Leigh's funniest film since "Life Is Sweet" (1991). Of course he hasn't ever made a completely funny film, and "Happy-Go-Lucky" has scenes that are not funny, not at all. There are always undercurrents and oddness. His films feel as if they're spontaneously unfolding; he has a vision of his characters that is only gradually revealed. He almost always finds remarkable performances, partly because he casts actors, not stars, and partly because he and the actors rehearse for weeks, tilting the dialogue this way and that, contriving back stories, finding out where the characters came from before the movie began, predicting where they will go after it's over.

I had seen Sally Hawkins in movies before. She was the rich girl who went to the private clinic in "Vera Drake." No role could be more different than Poppy. Leigh, who spent years working for the stage, was able to imagine her as Poppy, a role very few women could play. Maybe Meryl Streep could sustain that level of merriness, but then what can't she do?

And now I must ask, what can't Hawkins do? There are countless ways she might have stepped wrong. But she breezes in on her bicycle and engages our deepest sympathy. Poppy has a gift, as I said, for not running, but standing there, reading the situation, understanding other people and acting helpfully. By that I do not mean she cheers them up." ~ Roger Ebert

"She can’t stop talking, is addicted to double entendres and to saying the obvious — “nice day for it” — and the clichéd –“let’s go, gigolo” (said when she gets in a car) — and thinks she’s hilarious. Her conversational style extends to the visual, too — she has a chiropractic treatment in a coral-colored bra, yellow underwear, and blue, see-through lace stockings. She can’t stop flirting...

Poppy is on a Bodhisattva’s journey through the world. She is there to bring others to understand kindness if they can bear it. In popular Buddhist legend, the Bodhisattva of Compassion reaches down into hell to touch the souls there. Poppy has an underworld night scene in which she meets a deranged tramp. She approaches him and talks with him and it seems as if it might be an unwise thing to do, but this is just showing us our prejudices. We can think that the world is dangerous when it’s fine. I’ve been out walking with Byron Katie and seen her stop and stroke the hair of a homeless person, and talk with him with great curiosity and enthusiasm and move on.

You might think that Poppy lives in a dream world but when you see how effective and focused she is, you realize that she is offering a different way to live. She’s not trying to be nice, she actually loves people and loves being a grade school teacher. Her way of not judging others and not judging herself comes down to a complete practice for living effectively and joyfully — and the flirting seems to be an essential part of the package. People actually learn things when they hang around with Poppy. There’s hope for us all."
~ John Tarrant