More about Happy-Go-Lucky
Movie Review: Happy Go Lucky
By Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
Excerpt
October 10, 2008
Oct. 10, 2008 | When we talk about movie masterpieces, what usually come to mind are epic works that wow us with their scale, pictures that spring from grand ambitions and even grander budgets. But it takes more than ambition, and more than money, to make an intimate masterpiece like Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky," a picture so seemingly light that it might be hours (or even days) before you realize how deep and rich it really is. Made in characteristic Leigh fashion -- instead of following a strict script, the actors develop the characters through improvisational sessions -- "Happy-Go-Lucky" has no plot to speak of. Whatever story there is develops as a result of our deepening connection with the lead character, an unceasingly optimistic North London primary-school teacher named Poppy (Sally Hawkins), whose cheerfulness isn't a way of hiding from a chaotic, sometimes hostile world but a means of facing it. Leigh sets himself up for failure right there: Who wants to see movies about happy people? Misery, stress and confusion are the stuff of dramatic tension. But Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in "Happy-Go-Lucky." This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it.
Leigh introduces Poppy in the movie's opening credits: A rather ditzy-looking brunette decked out in a multicolored crocheted cardigan and lace tights, she's riding a bicycle through London streets, waving and smiling at people whom, even at this early stage, we're certain she doesn't know. She pops into a bookstore and promptly begins to annoy its taciturn clerk with her prattle. Taking a book called "Road to Reality" from the shelf, she natters, "I don't want to be going there!" She laughs at her own jokes, because she can't crack even a smile from that annoyed clerk. Leaving the store, she realizes her bicycle has been stolen, and she shows just a flash of exasperation before resigning herself to its loss: "We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye." ...
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