Happy-Go-Lucky (2008, UK)
Sally Hawkins really is as wonderful as everyone says in Mike Leigh’s bittersweet comedy that examines life through the eyes of a bubbly eternal optimist, and in particular what happens when Poppy (Hawkins) meets her match in a cantankerous driving instructor named Scott (a very dark Eddie Marsan). There’s been a lot written about Poppy’s nature walking a fine line between happiness and insanity, but despite one particularly leading scene, I don’t agree – I think that it more accurately looks at how we deal with happiness as a contemporary society, especially in a culture where pessimism, sarcasm and rejection rule the day.
posted by molly m. at 8:16 AM
2 Comments:
I absolutely adored that movie when I saw it. Reading this makes me just want to sit down and watch it again. And I'm a huge cynic, or was!
9:02 AM
I badgered my video store until they sold me one of their new-release copies and I watch it a lot. I'm not even sure why--something in my psyche NEEDS this movie. In a way, it confronts one of the Big questions... one that's so Big, no one dares to address it, really, except religion. And if you don't buy religion, you're often left out in the cold on this one. What is happiness? Why be happy? Why do so many resent happiness in others? What does it mean to be loving? What does it mean to be free? And many questions about "responsibility" and "adulthood" and social assumptions... My lord, how I love this movie.
Very interesting to watch the extras and read interviews online about the process of making the movie. Mike Leigh is saying something pretty important here, something that almost contradicts many of his earlier films. Watching this movie always makes me feel better about life and about the choices I've made and continue to make.
Poppy is the fucking Buddha.
1:54 PM
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