Happy-Go-Lucky
2008
***½
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Samuel Roukin, Andrea Riseborough, Sinead Matthews, Caroline Martin
Poppy is an unceasingly positive 30-year-old schoolteacher who is forced to reassess her outlook on life when she starts taking driving lessons from a bigoted instructor full of bottled anger. Mike Leigh presents another subtle slice of British life full of wonderfully drawn characters, with the minimalist action firmly grounded in reality. Leigh cleverly plays with our preconceptions of the characters and the direction of the narrative. Poppy is an irritatingly bubbly person, but as we wait for her comeuppance, the story goes somewhere else. In the end, it is easy to agree with Poppy's view of the world. Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan give solid performances in the lead.
