Movie of the Week: HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (Mike Leigh, 2008)
The gospel according to Poppy
Among all contemporary filmmakers, Mike Leigh just might be the one whose work speaks to me the most naturally. Maybe it’s his unrestrained affection for working people and their lives, or maybe it’s his ability to create films that feel at once spontaneously realized and precisely choreographed. All I know is that I love Leigh’s art unequivocally and Happy-Go-Lucky is no exception. Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a relentlessly cheery primary school teacher who lives life on her own terms, which mostly involves bringing joy to friends, family, students, co-workers, even homeless strangers. All around her, as Londoners habitually give in to the forces of anger and sadness, Poppy stands resolute, making the burden a little lighter for anyone who has the good fortune of crossing her path. But as much as Leigh believes in people like Poppy, he also understands, crucially, that there’s a limit to their magic. The limit’s name in this case is Scott (Eddie Marsan), the paranoid incel who’s teaching Poppy how to drive on Saturdays. The war of personality and ideology that marks their weekly sessions is Poppy’s unstoppable force meeting Scott’s immovable object, and Leigh’s brilliant touch is inferring that Scott, like everyone else, will eventually convert to the church of Poppy. Some people, however, are truly beyond help, and even Poppy has the good sense of realizing this. Scott can’t express his inevitable feelings for her through anything other than seething, sexually frustrated rage, and his climactic tirade — seemingly ripped from an earlier draft of Naked (1993) — is some of Leigh’s most devastating writing. This central conflict is supplemented by an unsurprisingly wonderful collection of supporting characters and eccentric widescreen frames, and despite its eleventh-hour darkness Happy-Go-Lucky is mostly suffused with the spirit of sunshine. People, living their lives, falling in and out of love, patching up what’s broken — or trying their best to do so. Our finest modern humanist?
Rent on Amazon Prime.
I love Mike Leigh and this movie. I think his process of writing a script and rehearsing it for three to four months until it feels natural is inspired. I understand why it doesn't work for the vast majority of productions but it's so cool that he does it that way!