More about Happy-Go-Lucky
Happy Go Lucky, directed by Mike Leigh
By Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Excerpt, Entertainment, Movies
October 10, 2008
"Happy-Go-Lucky" is something different from virtuoso British writer-director Mike Leigh. For what feels like the first time in his more than 35 years of bringing an exceptional level of insight and intensity to the exploration of human behavior, Leigh has put a thoroughly happy person front and center in one of his films.
That's not to say that Leigh's earlier films, works like "Life Is Sweet," "Naked" and the more recent "Vera Drake" and "Secrets & Lies" (both of which earned multiple Oscar nominations) were lacking in either humor or happiness. But no one with Poppy's particular kind of effervescent presence has been on offer in Leigh's world or, for that matter, anywhere.
Played by Sally Hawkins in a performance that won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival, Poppy practically defines irrepressible. With a personality as distinctive as her wacky clothing style, Poppy is the kind of person who completely means it when she says "Hello there, cheer up" to a flower whose head she stops from drooping...
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