The print ads and many reviews proclaim "Happy-Go-Lucky" as cheerful, uplifting, light-hearted, hilarious, etc. I was almost expecting a movie like "Smiley Face" without the drugs, or a modern day Hayley Mills in "Pollyanna." But Mike Leigh is a serious filmmaker with a clear eye toward the human condition, and has created a marvelously rich film that is more than meets the eye.
Poppy, as portrayed by Sally Hawkins, is no Pollyanna despite her upbeat demeanor. She, like her creator Leigh, has no illusions about human nature and its dark side, but has consciously chosen to face it not just with optimism and cheer, but with a deep compassion for the suffering and delusions of others. In this she is more bodhisattva than cockeyed optimist, able to help some but not others.
And what a fascinating lot of others she encounters-- family, friends, strangers, students, and ultimately a lover, all of whom are so real they are not movie characters in a conventional sense but simply the passing parade of souls that we all have in our lives. And by the same token, "Happy-Go-Lucky" is not a typical narrative story, but an oh-so-real slice of Poppy's, and our, life.
As a very real 30-year-old complete with age-specific foolishness, Poppy also challenges the audience's compassion for HER as she lapses into silliness and makes you wonder, like perhaps some of your own friends, why you're hanging with this twit. Then just as quickly we see her real depth, her courage and compassion in the face of the kind of rage and fear that Blake described in his poem "London":
"I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe..."
It is to Poppy's credit that she helps when she can, shrugs when she has to, and walks away when faced with a soul so lost that it threatens her own spirit.
Poppy, as portrayed by Sally Hawkins, is no Pollyanna despite her upbeat demeanor. She, like her creator Leigh, has no illusions about human nature and its dark side, but has consciously chosen to face it not just with optimism and cheer, but with a deep compassion for the suffering and delusions of others. In this she is more bodhisattva than cockeyed optimist, able to help some but not others.
And what a fascinating lot of others she encounters-- family, friends, strangers, students, and ultimately a lover, all of whom are so real they are not movie characters in a conventional sense but simply the passing parade of souls that we all have in our lives. And by the same token, "Happy-Go-Lucky" is not a typical narrative story, but an oh-so-real slice of Poppy's, and our, life.
As a very real 30-year-old complete with age-specific foolishness, Poppy also challenges the audience's compassion for HER as she lapses into silliness and makes you wonder, like perhaps some of your own friends, why you're hanging with this twit. Then just as quickly we see her real depth, her courage and compassion in the face of the kind of rage and fear that Blake described in his poem "London":
"I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe..."
It is to Poppy's credit that she helps when she can, shrugs when she has to, and walks away when faced with a soul so lost that it threatens her own spirit.