MUBI

NYFCC and NSFC award-winning English kitchen-sink director Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies” & “Vera Drake”) re-teams with long-time cinematographer Dick Pope (“Vera Drake” & “The Illusionist”) for his wide-screen début which won him numerous awards and a somewhat obscure Oscar nomination for his largely improvised screenplay.

Single thirty-something primary school teacher Poppy Cross (Sally Hawkins) takes lessons from unhinged driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan), goes binge drinking with flatmate Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), flamencos with fellow teacher Heather (Sylvestra Le Touzel) and flirts with social worker Tim (Samuel Roukin) in a largely improvised non-storyline.

Golden Globe-winning English actress Sally Hawkins (“Vera Drake” & “Layer Cake”) gives a stunning central performance that has won her many awards and accolades whilst powerful support comes from BIF award-winning co-stars Eddie Marsan (“Vera Drake” & “Hancock”) and Alexis Zegerman the former seemingly blissfully unaware that this is a comedy.

The film-makers have created a compelling central character, who, when brought to love by a truly gifted actress, seems infuriatingly believable and against the odds manages to hold together a rather flighty storyline that seems completely unworthy of its Academy Award nomination but none the less provides the requisite moments of realistic comedy and drama.

“It’s not easy being you, is it?”

Happy-go-lucky is definitely one of the movies that got stuck in my head for a long time after first seeing it.

It, obviously, confronts two opposite type of people, two opposite worlds – one bitter and one carefree.
The thing I liked so much about this movie, besides the amazing acting of Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan, is the Leigh’s intervening in the middle of the movie. The homeless guy Poppy meets and wants to be friendly with gives the viewer the message of the movie. As a some kind of a judge he comperes these two worlds and declares the ‘winner’ of the duel, although he is actually talking gibberish.

The confrontation climax is agressive and violent as the nature of it really is and it was carried out very well.

Todo el mundo me decía que enfrentarme con Poppy, la protagonista de esta pelicula, iba a ser una de las cosas mas insoportables que me pueda imaginar. Me decían que Poppy era super-recontra-positiva en todos los aspectos de su vida, que estaba siempre de buen ánimo, que todo lo veía con una sonrisa…Es verdad, algo de eso hay en Poppy, pero lo relevante de todo esto es que, apenas comenze a ver “Happy-Go-Lucky”, mas que una sensación de querer pegarle a Poppy, lo que sentí fue pena por ella. Y creo que ahi radica la faceta mas interesante del film de Mike Leigh: mostrar el mecanismo de defensa de una persona que necesita caer bien para sentirse bien. Poppy lo único que desea es quedar bien con todos, estar bien con todos. Pero detrás de todo ese positivismo ferviente, lo único que se esconde es una persona demasiado triste, absolutamente perdedora, sedienta de que le pasen cosas interesantes en su vida tremendamente monotóna. Porque revisemos la agenda de Poppy, a traves de lo que nos muestra Leigh, y nos vamos a dar cuenta de que estamos ante una de las personas mas tristes del planeta tierra: profesora de primaria de lunes a viernes, eventuales clases de flamenco, de vez en cuando saltar en una colchoneta y terminar la semana con todo saliendo toda la noche, para terminar alcholizada en su casa. Y empezar todo de nuevo. O sea, es evidente que Poppy necesita ver las cosas de un color rosa todo el tiempo, porque sino se derrumba enseguida.

Y parte de eso hay cuando Poppy se enfrenta con su antagonista por excelencia, que es ese conductor de autos completamente frustrado, derrotadisimo y hasta un poquito facista. Los enfrentamientos entre los dos personajes son lo mejor de la pelicula. Y, de hecho, “Happy-Go-Lucky” es una pelicula que se sostiene unicamente por los rasgos perfectamente construidos de sus personajes. Leigh los delinea de una manera precisa, justa, donde cada acción esta totalmente jusificada por sus comportamientos. Guionisticamente, se trata de una obra casi perfecta; el tema es que narrativamente termina cansando un poco. De tanto Poppy, de tanto ir y venir con su conductor, la pelicula termina transformándose en una espeice de espiral maléfico, que pone a prueba al espectador, para ver hasta donde es capaz de aguantar. Y esto es una perspectica completamente personal, porque estoy seguro que hay mucha gente a la que Poppy les resulta una persona simpátiquisima. Ojo, no es que Poppy sea inaguantable (de hecho, me termino cayendo bastante bien..), simplemente es que muchos de nosotros, entre los que me cuento, somos mas parecidos a ese conductor que mira la felicidad casi de reojo, como algo lejano, dificil de alcanzar. Pero Poppy es un poco asi. Ella sabe que la felicidad es algo que no viene muy seguido, y por eso utiliza esa coraza, ese mecanismo de defensa color esperanza para todo. Ella tiene los brazos abiertos. La espera. La feliidad nunca parece llegarle, y sin embargo, ahi esta. Sonriendo a cada golpe. El conductor ya se rindió por completo. Ella, por suerte, se entrena bailando todas las semanas y transformando la tristeza en altos saltos en una cama elástica movediza, juguetona, de manipulación escasa. Como algo que empieza con V y termina con A.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY is the antithesis of SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK.  Where Caden’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) day-to-day in SYNECDOCHE is a long, painful death march toward life’s final credits; In HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, Poppy (Sally Hawkins) refuses to succumb.  Where Charlie Kaufman has written a character that is depression personified, therefore he must be intellectually stealth; Mike Leigh presents a character in Poppy who is a happy warrior, in constant motion against life’s daily assault, therefore must be living in ignorant bliss; but no, Mike Leigh writes a smart, street-wise character, who simply refuses to let the bastards get her down. 

Poppy is a perpetual optimist out to brighten the lives of all around her. Her optimism, however, does not cheer all, irritating bookish store clerks and angry driving instructors. Is Poppy’s joy pathological? Is she broken and in need of fixing? Is she stuck or exactly where she wants to be? Poppy (Sally Hawikins) is a fascinating character in one of the year’s best films. Director Mike Leigh has fashioned, in his usual manner, a character study more concerned with conversation and the nuance of human interaction than plotting. You may find yourself impatient for the first twenty minutes or so tapping your feet and asking where’s the plot and who is this crazy lady. But when Poppy leaves her circle of club hopping pals and meets her foil, the deadly serious driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan), the film takes off. As the two clash—Poppy with her loud dress and barrage of silliness and Scott with his barely contained rage—Poppy’s character sharpens. Poppy at first appears oblivious to the pain of others, but we begin to learn the method to her seeming madness. She desires to heal the broken and we see her give fully of her spirit to the broken and hurt. A more quiet individual, a man who also helps those in need, spots Poppy and finds a kindred spirit. He notices her healing grace almost immediately. This is not a heavily plotted film. It is largely a collection of scenes in which personalities collide. The final exchanges between Poppy and Scott are highly engrossing and it is in these moments that we realize how deeply we have come to care about Poppy’s world and all the flawed individuals in it. Leigh has created a film full of grace and forgiveness in which flaws are observed more than chastised. He wants us to know his characters not judge them. It’s a lovely movie and is the rare film that nourishes the spirit. I am happy I met Poppy and look forward to returning to her world.

While I appreciate the opportunity for a great female character, it’s too bad there’s not a good story to put her in. Poppy is an elementary school teacher who likes to go clubbing, shopping, and taking dance lessons. There’s no overarching dilemma or obstacle. Even the ill-tempered driving instructor is just another amusement to Poppy. One could remove any scene at random (save for one shockingly dramatic moment toward the end) and the movie would play exactly the same.

After the depressing “Vera Drake” and “All or Nothing”, Mike Leigh returns to the wonderful light comedy of “Life is Sweet” and “Secrets & Lies” for this terrific parable about happiness and frustration in London’s lower-middle class. Delightful Sally Hawkins is Poppy, an overly joyous grade-school teacher seemingly happy with her life of school, friends, and the occasional party night, but when her bike is stolen and she has to take driving lessons, she meets her match in the frustrated and angry Scott (Eddie Marsan), a driving instructor who finds her flirtatious and frivolous attitude unrealistic with society’s ills. Leigh doesn’t ridicule or favor either of the conflicting attitudes, but it’s clear that both are overly extreme in their philosophy, and if you’re not willing to budge towards the other once in a while, Leigh suggests, with a vignette involving Poppy talking with a delusional homeless man, and Scott’s numerous exaggerated temper tantrums, it’s almost dangerously psychotic.

In short the most fascinating character study of a female protagonist in recent cinema. Audiences have been settling for second rate corporate heroines (Carrie Bradshaw, Bridget Jones to name a few). Despite Ellen Page’s fantastic performance in Juno … it wasn’t particularly realistic. Great and praise worthy … yes. But the film world has been rather short on three-dimensional, clever and affable and mature women. It’s so refreshing to see a realistic and inspiring person performance garner such attention. Plus the movie is hands down amazing.