A couple of days ago I had a daunting choice to make. Two films, starting at the same time, equal running time, one free ticket. Do I choose to see Robert Deniro possibly stinking the place up in "What Just Happened", a film which even under the best circumstances looks tortorous. Or do I go with the film I knew precious little about, Mike Leigh's "Happy Go Lucky". Deciding that the combination of a washed up Deniro and Barry "livin' off two movies" Levinson was too much to overcome even for free, I decided on the unknown instead.
Happy-Go-Lucky is the story of Poppy, an impish Pollyanna of a character living in North London. She's unabashedly cheerful, simply refusing to have a bad day no matter what life throws at her. Our introduction has her riding her precious bicycle cheerfully through the city streets, waving at passersby and smiling broadly. The bike is stolen from her moments later, to which Poppy simply replies "I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye".
Poppy has an assortment of friends, mainly her best friend Zoe whom she has lived with for years. Poppy goes through her day without a care in the world. She's a kindergarten teacher by day, a job perfectly suited to her as she's good at keeping the children active and happy. All seems right with the world until Poppy begins taking driving lessons.
Her instructor, Scott, is a tightly wound bundle of nerves and attitude. His entire outlook on life is woefully dire. Having Poppy as a student couldnt' be worse for him, and every lesson plays like a Laurel and Hardy routine. Poppy's too jokey and happy to be taking the lesson seriously, but Scott is too closed off to give her any freedom. What's most interesting is whether or not Scott will somehow intrude onto Poppy's rainbow colored view of the world. Will his bitterness and hate somehow begin to affect Poppy? Or will she do the same to him? The path their relationship takes is definitely the most interesting of the film. Its resolution I found ultimately unsatisfying, but the journey was brilliant.
Your enjoyment of this film depends completely on whether or not you can accept Poppy as a true to life character, and that probably depends on your disposition as a person. Poppy can either be the type of person you wish you could meet and be friends with, or the type of person you wish would dry up and blow away. Her incessant happiness can be completely off-putting at times. But for others it might be good to know that people like Poppy exist in this fucked up world of ours. I think the genius of what Mike Leigh has done is to portray characters in the film who will have the same diverse reactions to Poppy that we would in real life. Poppy doesn't seem to realize that her positive outlook can have extremely harmful effects on those around her. Poppy's obliviousness to the pain others are feeling can be irritating because those people need to know that they are friends with someone who understands what they're going through.
To Leigh's credit, he tries to open the door for Poppy to evolve into a bit more of a complete human being. The problem is that the attempt comes off as shoehorned in. Poppy finds herself, seemingly at random, in a back alley having a weird conversation with a homeless man. My question at first was: Why the fuck is she out here in the dark all of a sudden? Then my question was: Why won't she fucking leave? The guy's not saying anything intelligible! Leigh was trying to foreshadow something that happens later. Ironically it's the two scenes where they are deliberately trying to "darken" Poppy that fall most flat. She's best left the way she is.
The rest of the film comes off without a hitch. Sally Hawkins, who I don't think I've ever seen before, does a great job not making Poppy too much of a cartoon character. Poppy is unintentionally funny. She's almost like the Tom Hanks character in "Big". A grown up with a childlike sensibility. Maybe I'll get around to seeing Deniro's new flick this weekend. Maybe I won't. If I do, it's too bad I can't bring somebody like Poppy with me. I might need the cheering up.
7/10
