On the list of least likely titles for a Mike Leigh film, “Happy-Go-Lucky” must be up there with “Cockeyed Optimist” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” But here it is, and it’s one of the British filmmaker’s best pictures in years.
The title describes the central character, the aptly-named Poppy. She’s a habitually cheerful striver, leading a regular life in London as a schoolteacher — and she seems quite delighted about it.
Poppy is played by Sally Hawkins, who’s played a couple of roles in other Leigh projects (the downbeat “All or Nothing” and “Vera Drake”). Hawkins, who seems to be talking through about 80 percent of the movie, is uncannily good at creating a jazzlike rhythm to her incessant speech, especially as she plays off the different personalities that come into Poppy’s orbit.
As always with Leigh, the script was assembled in collaboration with the actors. Much of the film consists of routines from Poppy’s life: going out for drinks, taking a flamenco lesson with a co-worker, visiting her mysteriously resentful sister.
Her bicycle is stolen after the film’s first sequence, which leads her into driving lessons. These lessons give the film a backbone; we regularly come back to her latest session with driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan).
Scott is an uptight, control-minded guy who takes elaborate pride in his system of instruction. Poppy’s chaotic personality is exactly wrong for this, and their clash of attitudes creates the movie’s most exciting scenes.
But in some ways the most memorable relationship is the understated one between Poppy and the friend she shares her flat with, Zoe (Alexis Zegerman). I have rarely seen friendship depicted in movies in a more casual, believable way than this.
In some ways, the film’s title doesn’t really do Poppy justice. I don’t think she’s happy-go-lucky, and she certainly doesn’t see the world through rose-colored glasses — she sees things quite clearly. It’s more that she’s completely honest with people, and not for self-serving reasons.
Thus when it comes time to defuse a potentially disturbing situation, Poppy meets it head on, without fuss. If she has the kind of self-confidence to allow her to do that, no wonder she’s happy.
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