Happy-Go-Lucky is a
2008 British comedy-drama film written and directed by
Mike Leigh. The screenplay focuses on a
cheerful and optimistic primary school teacher and her
relationships with those around her. The film was well-received by
critics and resulted in a number of awards for Leigh and lead
actress
Sally Hawkins.
Synopsis
Thirty
years old and single, Pauline "Poppy" Cross shares a London
flat with
her best friend Zoe, a fellow teacher. When her bicycle is
stolen, Poppy decides to take driving lessons for the first time in
her life. Her driving instructor, Scott, is emotionally repressed,
with anger problems and given to conspiracy theories, racism and
misogyny. Scott is angered by Poppy's sunny personality and what he
perceives as her lack of responsibility and concern for driving
safety.
Poppy is devoted to her students, but her life isn't dominated by
her vocation. She takes
flamenco lessons
with another teacher and a trampoline class (which leads to back
problems and a treatment by an
osteopath),
and enjoys an occasional evening in the local pub. She seemingly
has no fear of strangers, taking the time to interact with a
mentally ill homeless man while on the way home one night.
At school, Poppy sees one of her pupils bullying his classmates. A
social worker, Tim, is brought in to handle the boy's case. Through
Tim and the pupil's interactions, the pupil tells them his mother's
boyfriend has been beating him. After working on this case, Tim and
Poppy begin dating.
Poppy,
Zoe, and Poppy's younger sister Suzy go to visit another sister,
Helen, who lives with her husband in Southend-on-Sea
and is pregnant. Helen tells Poppy that she
needs to "take life seriously" and plan for the future, but Poppy
responds that she is happy with her life as it is. Helen accuses
Poppy of "rub[bing] it in" and looking down on her, and a brief
confrontation ensues which Poppy tries to defuse.
Returning from the visit, Poppy sees Scott standing across the
street from her flat, but he runs away when she calls his name.
When she confronts him at the beginning of her next lesson, he
adamantly insists he had been visiting his aunt at the time she
claims to have seen him. Scott drives dangerously while ranting
against other drivers and society, and when he gives Poppy the keys
to his car she tells him he is in no condition to give a driving
lesson and she will drive him home. Scott demands that Poppy give
him the keys back, tries to take them back by force, and then
accuses Poppy of trying to seduce him in a long, unhinged diatribe.
Unable to reason with him, Poppy waits until he has calmed down and
then gives the keys back, telling him that him the lesson will be
their last.
The film
ends with Poppy and Zoe rowing a boat in Regent's Park
, as Poppy takes a mobile phone call from Tim and
Zoe advises Poppy to think about "giving up being nice to
everyone." Poppy dismisses the advice, cheerfully but not
naively.
Production
The film is Mike Leigh's first shot in widescreen. It was made and
distributed with the assistance of
National Lottery funding through the
UK Film Council, with £1.2 million
awarded to the production company, and a further £210,000 awarded
to the film's UK distributor.
The film
was shot on location in Camden Lock,
Camden
Market
, Regent’s Park, Stroud Green
, Finsbury
Park
, Lambeth
, and
Tufnell
Park
in London and Southend-on-Sea in Essex.
In
Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky, a bonus feature on
the DVD release of the film, director Leigh, cinematographer Dick
Pope, and stars Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan discuss the
logistics of filming the lengthy scenes in which Poppy is learning
how to drive. Five miniature cameras were hidden throughout the
vehicle, and at times Leigh was wedged on the floor behind the
front seats. Although the actors were required to adhere to basic
plot premises, a large percentage of their dialogue was improvised,
forcing them to react to stimuli outside the car and interact in
character while concentrating on their driving.
In
Happy-in-Character, another DVD bonus feature, Leigh
and the actors discuss how the director works with his cast
one-on-one to help them fully create their characters before actual
filming begins. Because Scott is such a troubled individual, Eddie
Marsan thought he was preparing for a heavy drama, and it wasn't
until he started working with Sally Hawkins that he realized how
funny the film actually was.
The film premiered at the
Berlin International Film
Festival and was shown at the
Dublin Film Festival before going into
theatrical release in the UK on 18 April 2008.
It later was featured
at the Telluride Film
Festival, the Toronto International Film
Festival
, the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival,
the New York Film Festival,
the Athens Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the
Morelia Film Festival, the Chicago International Film
Festival, the Warsaw International FilmFest, and the Tokyo International Film
Festival.
Cast
Critical reception
Rotten Tomatoes reported 95% of
critics were positive about the film, based on 76 reviews.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian rated the film four out of
five stars and said, "Mike Leigh's trademarked cartoony dialogue,
as ever lending a neo-
Dickensian
compression and intensity to the proceedings, is an acquired taste
and I have gladly acquired it, though some haven't. I am not quite
sure what I think about the big, final confrontation between Poppy
and Scott. It is well-acted and composed, and Marsan is ferociously
convincing, yet the episode is closed off a little too neatly, and
Poppy seems eerily unaffected by this or anything else. The effect
is a kind of odd and steely invulnerability: not unattractive
exactly, but disconcerting. Hawkins plays it superbly though:
exactly right for the part and utterly at ease with a role that is
uniquely demanding. In the factory-farmed blandness of the movies,
Happy-Go-Lucky has a strong, real taste."
Philip French of
The Observer called the film "as funny,
serious, life-affirming and beautifully performed as anything Leigh
has done, but with a lightness of touch only previously found in
his
Gilbert and Sullivan movie,
Topsy-Turvy."
Manohla Dargis of the
New York Times called the film "so
closely tuned to the pulse of communal life, to the rhythms of how
people work, play and struggle together, it captures the larger
picture along with the smaller. Like Poppy, the bright focus of
this expansive, moving film, Mr. Leigh isn’t one to go it alone.
Played by a glorious Sally Hawkins — a gurgling, burbling stream of
gasps, giggles and words — Poppy . . . keeps moving forward and
dancing and jumping and laughing and nodding her dark, delicate
head as if she were agreeing not just with this or that friend but
also with life itself. She’s altogether charming or perhaps
maddening — much depends on whether you wear rose-colored specs —
recognizably human and every inch a calculated work of art."
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times rated the film four
stars and called Sally Hawkins "a joy to behold." He added, "This
is Mike Leigh's funniest film since
Life Is Sweet. Of course he hasn't ever
made a
completely funny film, and
Happy-Go-Lucky
has scenes that are not funny, not at all. There are always
undercurrents and oddness."
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone rated the film 3½ out of
four stars and commented, "Get ready for Sally Hawkins, a dynamo of
an actress who will have her way with you in
Happy-Go-Lucky, leaving you enchanted, enraged to the
point of madness and utterly dazzled. No list of the year's best
performances should be made without her." He added, "In lesser
hands, the film would go off the deep end into cheap theatrics. But
Leigh . . . keeps the emotions in balance by keeping them real.
There's something raw in Hawkins that wins our empathy for Poppy.
Thanks to her,
Happy-Go-Lucky is more than a movie, it's a
gift."
Ruthe Stein of the
San
Francisco Chronicle stated, "The key to enjoying the film,
a minor effort by Leigh, is warming up to Poppy. Her bubbly
personality may be too much for some. She's like a walking, talking
smiley face. Fortunately, as Leigh proved in
Secrets & Lies and
Vera Drake, he has a keen eye for actresses,
and he has found in Sally Hawkins the consummate Poppy."
Time Out London observed
"You know you’re watching something both delightfully light-footed
and acutely meaningful when Leigh moves so nimbly between scenes at
Poppy’s school, her flamenco class and her driving lessons . . .
It’s a funny film . . . and, crucially, it aches with truth."
Top ten lists
The film was cited as one of the ten best films of 2008 by many
critics, including Manohla Dargis, Stephen Holden, and A.O. Scott
of the
New York Times, Liam Lacey of
The Globe and Mail, Ray Bennett of
The Hollywood
Reporter,
Shawn Levy of
The Oregonian, Carrie Rickey
of
The Philadelphia
Inquirer,
David Edelstein
of
New York, Elizabeth
Weitzman of the
New York Daily
News, Kimberly Jones of
The Austin Chronicle,
Michael Sragow of
The Baltimore Sun,
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times, Ann Hornaday of
The Washington Post,
Lisa Schwarzbaum of
Entertainment Weekly, Dennis
Harvey of
Variety, and
Steve Rea of
The
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Awards
DVD release
The Region 1 DVD was released on 10 March 2009. It is in
anamorphic widescreen format with an
audio track in English and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus
features include commentary by screenwriter/director Mike Leigh,
Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky, and
Happy-in-Character.
References
- The Guardian, April 17, 2008
- UK Film Council Awards Database
- Rotten Tomatoes.com
- The Guardian review
- The Observer review
- New York Times review
- Chicago Sun-Times review
- Rolling Stone review
- San Francisco Chronicle review
- Time Out London review
- Metacritic 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists
- 2008 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award
winners: December 15, 2008 San Francisco Film
Critics Circle Awards. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
- 2008 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award
winners: Dec. 15, 2008 Women Film Journalists Award. Retrieved
December 16, 2008.
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