Happy-Go-Lucky [2008]

See Larger Image	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £5.48 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment Starring: Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Andrea Riseborough, Samuel Roukin, Sinead Matthews Directed By: Mike Leigh Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5060116723175 Format: PAL Label: Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment Manufacturer: Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2008-08-18 Running Time: 114 Studio: Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 2008
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Editorial Reviews: A more upbeat movie than you might expect from Mike Leigh, yet one that finds one of Britain’s finest film directors still on good form. Happy-Go-Lucky follows a primary school teacher, Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, who has an infectious, positive manner about her. She’s the shining core of the film, an upbeat, happy, yet absolutely three dimensional character. Poppy’s nature is, inevitably, somewhat tested in Happy-Go-Lucky, not least by driving instructor Scott. Superbly played by Eddie Marsan, it’s fair to say that Scott doesn’t share Poppy’s positivity, yet once more, he’s a frighteningly real character, and at times extremely unsettling to watch. There are layers to Happy-Go-Lucky, with plenty bubbling on under the surface, yet that there’s no escaping the fact that it is a cheerier movie than Leigh usually delivers. It’s fuelled particularly by Sally Hawkins, who is quite brilliant in the central role, and it’s potentially a career-making performance from her. Yet, once again, the hidden star of Happy-Go-Lucky is Mike Leigh himself, who has shaped an often very funny film, but not one without some gravitas to it. The man remains a national treasure, and Happy-Go-Lucky is but the latest reason why. An easy film to recommend. --Jon Foster
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Happy or Mad? Comment: There are two main characters in this film: Poppy, and her driving instructor. And whilst watching them interact it is hard not to supress the feeling that both of them are at war with the world in their own way. For both of them, the world is a cruel place, but Poppy chooses to fight it with optimism and her instructor with anger. I think this is the reason why Poppy's happy-go-luckiness grates with some people; it's manic. There is something unsettling about it, as nice as it is. It feels a little inhuman at times. The instructor, angry and sullen, is just as intesnse. Yet, for him he has either reached his nadir and can deal with it - or he doesn't really mean it and will one day snap out of it. Or - it is Poppy's character that provokes him, as it provokes some viewers. If her attitude is genuine, then Poppy is mad - but in a way that is an asset and not a liability. But if she is faking it, sooner or later her optimism will wear her out. Owing to this, I think this film is much more interesting than the synopsis makes out. The only other Mike Leigh film I've seen is Nuts In May, and that was a long time ago. Now, having watched this, I feel like watching more of his films. Customer Rating: Summary: A waste of time and money Comment: An unbelievable disappointment. We are great fans of Mike Leigh, especially the sublime Nuts In May from the mid 70s and other classics ranging from Grown Ups, Life Is Sweet and Vera Drake. But this? A feel good film?? We battled through nearly two hours of dross believing it had to get better and had to go somewhere, but we were left wondering what the hell it was all about. We had tried in vain to find a cinema that was showing this film when it first came out but obviously we were being spared parting with good cash. Poppy, the lead character, was exceptionally exasperating from start to finish. Whoever employed her as a primary school teacher should be struck off. The scene in the middle of the film where she was alone late at night with the tramp was totally unnecessary, totally alien to the storyline and totally unbelievable. If this was a departure from the norm for Mike Leigh I hope he quickly gets back to what he was doing so well before. Avoid this film at all costs Customer Rating: Summary: Surprised me Comment: I expected this to be just a quirky comedy, but it contains performances of startling sensitivity and depth. It's a film about people and their interactions, and because of this, it can be both hilarious and deeply sad. Polly is a chronically upbeat schoolteacher who lives in a rented flat with her best friend. She finds almost everything amusing, and doesn't seem to have any of reserve that usually blankets our public social interactions. She's glib and giggly. I think if I knew her in real life I'd hate her. BUT, Sally Hawkins manages to pull the role off in such a way that is almost painfully cute. Her annoying laugh eventually becomes endearing, and over the course of the film she skillfully reveals the integrity of Poppy's character through excellent and subtle changes to her acting. That her happy acting is so convincing only makes the darker sections of her performance all the more powerful. Eddie Marsan is outstanding as Scott, a man who is the antithesis of Poppy. His intensity is palpable, even when he is silent. Whoever thought of setting their interactions in a closed space is a genius. Hawkins and Marsan's acting would be nothing without the sharp script, which is full of witty exchanges and throwaway profundities without feeling too artificial. Customer Rating: Summary: A movie by Mike Leigh as optimistic and touching as Poppy is, and sometimes as irritating Comment: It's probably because unrestrained optimism can be as tiring as climbing six flights of stairs carrying a sack of groceries, but Poppy, as much as I admired her outlook, wore me out. We spend several days with this 30-year-old young woman who lives and works in blue collar North London. She shares a flat with her best friend, teaches at an elementary school, bikes around town, takes driving lessons, has her spine jerked into shape, signs up for flamenco, encounters a down-and-outer, helps a student who is angry for reasons we don't know, maybe finds a boyfriend, has her bike stolen, tries to make a bookseller smile, and sums up in a rowboat her approach to living. By now you've guessed that Happy-Go-Lucky is Poppy's story, the story of a woman who chooses indomitably to be cheerful, to try to make others cheerful and to refuse to let life's downbeats dictate her own music. The movie is improbable, irritating and often quite touching. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy. It must have been an incredibly draining job. Poppy is a woman who laughs, cracks jokes, mugs, does a dance step or two or all of the above whenever she's happy, sad, in pain, feels awkward with others or is just by herself. She doesn't stop. Yet with all this obsessive cheerfulness (although it's not really obsessive because Poppy makes her own choices of how she wants to be and what makes her happy), we also realize that somewhere in the incessant behavior is an empathetic woman, deeper than we might have thought. When she deals with her angry student, she really listens to the child and slowly draws him out. Her experiences with an over-the-top driving instructor, a man full of resentments and pride, eventually leave her on a sidewalk with him driving off. But in the face of his possibly dangerous anger, she actually wants to help the guy. She reaches out carefully but sincerely. As loony an experience as her night-time encounter with a chanting tramp is, she's more concerned with the man than she is scared enough to run away. And, who knows, perhaps she finds the love of her life in Tim, the social services counselor brought in to work with the troubled boy. We really hope so. With all these vignettes, Sally Hawkins probably has given the performance of her career. But to be truthful, I got tired of Poppy well before the movie was over. I hope that things will turn out well for her, but life has a way of springing some nasty surprises no matter how nice a person you might be. I liked Poppy, but she'd probably drive me crazy as a neighbor. The writer and director, Mike Leigh, is one of those rare movie birds, a man who makes his own movies on his terms. He doesn't operate from a script, but works closely with the actors in plotting out where they will go when the cameras start. Any director has my vote who can come up with such disparate and excellent movies as Vera Drake (2004) and Topsy-Turvy (1999). Vera Drake, with a powerful, anguished performance by Imelda Staunton, deals with abortion in England when it was a crime. Topsy-Turvy is the delightful story of how Gilbert and Sullivan, close to loathing each other at times, came to create The Mikado. Jim Broadbent as Gilbert and Allan Corduner as Sullivan have seldom been better. "I remain the guy with no script," Leigh has been quoted as saying, "who is very unforthcoming about what the film will be about and who won't discuss casting, which is the biggest sin of all. I will not talk about a film, even if there is a massive budget, if there are strings attached about casting." Mike Leigh creates the movies he chooses to. If for no other reason, this makes Happy-Go-Lucky worth seeing. Customer Rating: Summary: Happy-Go-Lucky or just plain stupid? Comment: The only good thing about this film is that the acting is great. It is not a comedy - it is not funny and it is actually disturbing in places. Anyone with a degree of sense would have switched driving instructors after the first lesson and reported him to the DSA and perhaps the local mental health trust - for his sake as well as hers . Also, going up to strange homeless men you find on the street (with apparent mental health issues) is not smart - yet it is represented as endearing and altruistic. Instead of being allowed to aspire to Poppy's outlook - I found her so irritating and mindless at times! As a character she was too inconsistent to really warm to and to equate optimism with her sometimes oblivious outlook is enough to make anyone a pessimist. More Reviews