bob-1135
The main character is supposed to be a happy go lucky ray of sunshine, but if you look deeper you will see she is nothing but a nasty bully. She doesn't care who gets hurt as long as she can laugh about it. The Flamenco dancer lets everyone know that dancing is her passion and her life, what does Poppy do? Completely ruin the sessions and leaves her in tears. Marsan is an introverted chap whose only achievement is being a good driving instructor. Poppy by refusing to listen to him causes numerous problems and manages to ruin the one thing he is good at. Happy go LuckY? No a nasty little bully who cares for no one around her.
Morten_5
Acclaimed English independent writer-director Mike Leigh has a great eye and ear for details. Here, he directs much talented Sally Hawkins.Leigh portrays some months in the life of main character Poppy (Hawkins). The viewer gets to follow her in her everyday life, working as teacher, spending time with her friends, taking flamenco classes and doing her weekly driving lesson. There are no large-scale events, just the drama and comedy of life around her. Leigh's achievement is the way he makes these things so interesting and engaging for the viewer. The way he and actor Sally Hawkins connects with each other in the director-actor relationship is also quite impressive.
SnoopyStyle
As the title suggests, Poppy Cross (Sally Hawkins) is happy-go-lucky. She is 30 living in Camden and a school teacher. She is talkative and friendly to a fault. No matter what goes wrong with her life, she remains unflinchingly optimistic. She lives with her best friend Zoe. She tries to learn to drive from angry instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan). One of the kids is a bully and a hot young social worker comes to help.I don't want to come off as being sour, but her unguided happiness annoyed me a little. It's a brilliant performance and the first time I noticed Sally Hawkins. She fully commits to this character. It could have come off as being ditsy but she adds a depth to this character. Mike Leigh is able to give this one note character something more interesting. There's a sad note hiding underneath this character. Eddie Marsan has some fun being the sourpuss and has good funny exchanges. EnRaHa!
MovieProductions
(***) out of (*****)"Happy-Go-Lucky" is the sort of film I expected to be a critically-acclaimed family-friendly tour- de-force into Sally Hawkin's everyday life. What you'll get instead is an independent, not-for- everyone sort of tour-de-force, but still keeping its critical (and public?) acclaim. How did it resonate with me?A bit overrated. Sure the average IMDb score is a 7, which I'm awarding it, but while I'd give the film a solid 3/4, most are either impeccable or near-impeccable marks (which I can understand), but I feel while being a good film, has its problems.Let's start off with the good: Without Sally Hawkins, this movie would just fall apart. You take her away and anybody could've made this movie. Well, the cinematography definitely scores some points as this is a BEAUTIFUL movie to look at. I also liked that the movie really reached its art-house status, most notably when Hawkins interacts with a homeless guy. Lots of subtlety going on in that one, and this is where her character really takes off.What irked me? The pacing. This is a film that's surprisingly very slow, and it takes a while for you to get used to the main character (since when the title reads "Happy-Go-Lucky", it really delivers upon what it promises). And, maybe this isn't a gripe, but just how depressing that climax was. This film is like eating a piece of cake. It's all sweet, maybe too sweet, and then BAM! It hits you. Yes, the resolution leaves the movie on a positive note, but it's a little too abrupt for you to feel all giddy about yourself again. And also, there were some things left unopened, as the child's past (I thought we could've delved a little deeper into that).All in all, if you're looking to take a walk away from the real world, see the entire thing, skip the climax, and finish watching at the resolution and it's your money well spent. I can't deny the cinematography is gorgeous and the acting is quite up to par, but the direction left me a little underwhelmed to say the least. While I had my gripes here and there, this is a film that maybe isn't deserving of its full acclaim, but it's at least worth a look.
AD
