Sally
Hawkins give of her best
After
Mike Leigh’s bleak but brilliant last film Vera Drake,
one hardly expects such a bright and breezy comedy to come from
his pen, but Happy-Go-Lucky is just the opposite to the
earlier picture; as different as chalk and cheese.
Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is an exceedingly cheerful
young London primary school teacher. She might as well be called
Polly, diminutive of Pollyanna because she’s certainly playing
the “glad game” in a big way. Poppy’s always
laughing and loves a joke, so is well liked by her friends. We’re
introduced as she cycles to a market where her first encounter
is with a gloomy bookstore owner unimpressed with her cheerful
banter. In the film we follow Poppy through a series of encounters
which, while on the surface seem fairly commonplace, end up being
more intriguing than you’d expect. Poppy has a free spirit
which is totally unsinkable and often unpredictable.
We see her enjoying a nightclub dance with her ditzy
sister Suzy (Kate O’Flynn), adored flatmate Zoe (Alexis
Zegerman), and close friends Alice (Sinead Matthews) and Dawn
(Andrea Riseborough). They wander back to the flat and proceed
to get totally sozzled. It’s a well handled sequence with
a nice balance of sharp humour. A later flamenco dance school
scene features an amusing cameo by the sarcastic teacher (Karina
Fernandez). More disturbing is her night encounter with deranged
tramp (Stanley Townsend) in a city wasteland. There’s a
strange rapport in the oddball conversation between them as he
finally goes off mumbling to himself. Poppy appears to have helped
him in some undefined way.
Another
disturbing element is introduced when she decides to take driving
lessons from Scott (Eddie Marsan) a particularly grumpy instructor,
whose dark side becomes increasingly apparent as the lessons continue.
Scott takes an obsessive interest in Poppy while his temper unravels.
Meantime Poppy has a fling with Tim (Samuel Roukin) the social
worker brought to her school to look into a case of a child’s
mistreatment at home. She also pays a visit to her pregnant younger
sister on the coast, taking with her Suzy and Zoe. This doesn’t
work out well.
While on the face of it nothing much happens in
the movie, it casts a spell of its own with its whimsical look
at contemporary life in London. The people are real, their problems
understandable, and Mike Leigh expands relatively simple situations
to extremes with ironic humour and perception. Even his street
scenes have interesting characters in the background.
Energetic Sally Hawkins (The Painted Veil)
is exceptionally frothy as Poppy the typical bubbly British chick,
a modern take on 1960's Rita Tushingham with delivery at times
reminiscent of Dawn French. It’s a commendable effort and
shows Hawkins is definitely a star on the ascendent. Eddie Marsan
(21 Grams) confidently plays the driving instructor with
increasing tension, and the small part of the loony tramp is well
handled by Stanley Townsend. Alexis Zegerman has a sympathetic
role as friend Zoe which presents to her no problem at all.
Director and writer Mike Leigh is much at home on
this turf, and as one expects he pulls the right strings to make
the picture work. Pleasantly photographed, while the production
values are fine. Pacing is leisurely but for fans of Mike Leigh
that won’t make the slightest difference. It’s a light
but entertaining piece for a winter night at the cinema.
John Bale
