La felicità porta fortuna - Happy Go Lucky

This film is about a London school teacher who is constantly happy, and even childish.

I was hoping "Happy Go Lucky" would at least be a feel good happy movie. With this expectation, I was devastatingly disappointed by what I saw. Poppy is a person who does not take anything seriously. Instead of being cute and comical, she comes across as being very annoying and even offensively stupid at times. She and her friends engage in tireless and pointless conversations, making the whole film really boring. The driving instructor is unlikeable as he is uptight and rigid, but his scenes are the comparatively most captivating out of the whole film.

I don't see the reason for the rave reviews for this film. It's ever so boring and irritating.

Some UK critics have been saying that "Happy-Go-Lucky" is the happiest and most cheerful movie that Mike Leigh has ever made. Well, I don't know if I would exactly agree with that. It is and it isn't.

Sally Hawkins' primary school teacher Poppy is, indeed, a very happy individual. Annoyingly happy, insanely cheerful, depressingly optimistic and psychotically 'Up!', most of the time. It is a tribute to Sally Hawkins performance that, once you get past the initial irritation with her, you completely fall in love with Poppy, her goodness, her openness and, yes, her simple niceness.

Then there is Eddie Marsan's driving instructor Scott. Scott is the very antithesis of happy. Scott is rigid, angry, frustrated, impatient, knotted up and racist. A borderline OCD sufferer, who is tortured by who-knows-what in his past. Scott is the most bitter and overwhelming character in a Mike Leigh film since David Thewlis' Johnny in "Naked". It is a towering performance by Eddie Marsan.

If Poppy is the light, Scott is definitely the dark, but it seemed to me that dark shadows inhabit the whole of "Happy-Go-Lucky". The unhappy schoolboy, the glum Sister, the other sister - a social climber who dominates her husband. Little vignettes of irritation and annoyance. Typical Mike Leigh.

"Happy-Go-Lucky" is a really good film, if you stick with it. I liked the way that Poppy does stop smiling towards the end. Maybe the world is too much for even the most dedicated optimist?

Dear Readers, please see the movie before voting whether or not a review is helpful.

"Happy-Go-Lucky" (HGL) is being marketed as a lively comedy, in the vain of "Amelie," which is a far superior film that should be rented instead of seeing HGL (a search for Amelie at IMDb will bring up a review). HGL made me and my fiancée sad and annoyed that we had wasted two hours of our lives watching this dreck.

HGL is a film about several sad and miserable people and an annoying, overly-optimistic Poppy who sees the world though rose-colored-glasses no matter the problem or danger. Poppy come across as a lunatic surrounded by boring characters. No one in HGL does anything to endear themselves to any of the other characters or for that matter to the audience. Poppy may be "Happy" but her happiness is not infectious, and she does nothing that brings any joy into the film world or our world.

HGL has few laughs and fails as a comedy; it also fails as a drama about sad and miserable people.

Please consider the environment before printing this review. For more eco-tips, try a Google search for TreeHugger.

In Camden, the elementary school teacher Poppy Cross (Sally Hawkins) is a very optimistic thirty year-old smiler that has been sharing a flat with her girlfriend and also teacher Zoe (Alexis Zegerman) for ten years. When her bicycle is stolen, Poppy decides to have driving lessons in the Axle School of Motoring with the rude, bigoted and bitter instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan). Meanwhile she has trouble with her back in the trampoline and she decides to take classes of Flamenco dance with a Spanish teacher. When her pupil Nick (Jack MacGeachin) bullies other students, Poppy feels that the boy is having troubles at home and asks for the assistance of the social worker Tim (Samuel Roukin) and they start to date each other. However her attitude of happiness and joy is misinterpreted by Scott.

"Happy-Go-Lucky" is a simple movie of Mike Leigh with one of the sweetest and most beautiful characters I have ever seen. Sally Hawkins is simply fantastic performing a character that tries to bring smile to the world, and I loved her. The story discloses a couple of days in the life of this remarkable character that seems to be inspired in some of Frank Capra's characters. Her counterpoint is Scott, with a magnificent performance of the always effective Eddie Marsan. The winner of this duel is unfortunately the sadness and bitterness of Scott that shakes the happiness of Poppy in a realistic conclusion of this great little movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Simplesmente Feliz" ("Simply Happy")

I think most of us know a person who is perpetually happy and optimistic, and so annoyingly so that you resent them for being happy when you're not, and you consciously or unconsciously try to smash their rose-tinted glasses. I would add a "or maybe that's just me" but Happy-Go-Lucky is the story of such a person, and how she affects everyone around her.

Gawd, Poppy's annoying. This is quite the "love it or hate it" movie depending on whether you're more like her or like the angry and negative driving instructor she antagonizes with her cheerfulness. But as long as you can hold down the bile, it can be fascinating to watch her interact with the spectrum of people she encounters, since they all fall at various points between her and the instructor. From tolerant, to accepting, to nonchalant, to envious, they run the gamut and it's pretty easier to associate with one of them.

At first I thought Sally Hawkins' performance was going to be one shrill note throughout the movie, but no, there are fortunately moments of quiet drama too. In any case, I have to admire someone who can act so constantly cheerful without any traces of irony. I find Mike Leigh's movies quite hard to sit through, since they're usually about people and their interactions, and to appreciate the movies you have to strive to understand their people. Patience and understanding are not qualities I have in copious amounts; I generally prefer characters that I automatically empathize with.

This movie is a rare oddity in that it annoyed me and yet it was still a good watch. It's a movie that I would recommend to people but lordy, I don't wanna watch it again.