Reviews
Happy-Go-Lucky (15)
THEe other day I saw director
Mike Leigh's screen work
defined as "miserablist", thanks
to movies like Naked, Secrets And
Lies and Vera Drake.
So to find him helming a film
with the title Happy-Go-Lucky is
as big a shock as anything
Hitchcock ever delivered in his
thrillers. Leigh has gone all
smiley-smiley, or at least his
leading lady has. Sally Hawkins
stars as Poppy, a primary school
teacher who greets all life's
misfortunes with a smile.
Watching someone be caring and
good for two hours can prove a bit
wearing. Be miserable
occasionally, you want to tell her.
She certainly has good cause to
be unhappy at times. Driving
lessons with unsmiling instructor
Scott (Eddie Marsan) take a nasty
turn when he starts stalking her.
Never mind, she can enjoy a
boozy night out with the girls or
cuddle up to her new social
worker boyfriend. She can also
make sympathetic noises when
she encounters a tramp at dead of
night on waste ground in a scene
that sticks out like a sore thumb,
making little sense and has
seemingly strayed in from
another film.
Happy-Go-Lucky reaches the
screen through the usual Leigh
process of the director working
with the actors to create
characters and see where that
leads them. The result is one of
his more accessible movies that
might just cause you to leave the
cinema with a smile on your face,
not least because of the fantastic
leading performance by Hawkins.
Stars: Sally Hawkins, Eddie
Marsan, Alexis Zegerman,
Andrea Riseborough
Running time: 118 mins
Rating: Three stars
12:21pm Friday 18th April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
