Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Talk about a movie not turning out to be what you expect it to be! What's brilliant about HAPPY-GO-LUCKY is that it starts off like a lightweight British comedy and ends up being one of the most profound meditations on human nature I have seen all year -- or in recent years.

Sure, for sheer moral turmoil one could watch "Doubt," but what crisis of character comes closer to one we all face than the nucleus of HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, which is, at its core, a film about optimism vs. cynicsm/pessimism. And what a profound time to wrestle with this choice!

Sally Hawkins has received rave reviews for playing Poppy, a woman who is so damn chipper that she all but shrugs off the theft of her mode of transportation, her bicycle.

I'm going to be honest -- I wanted to punch her in the face! After the first 15 minutes or so, I thought to myself that I might not make it through the film.

But then something happened to me. I realized that Poppy was anything but a shallow character and this was anything but a shallow film.

Yes, Poppy is a cheerful woman, to a fault. But she is not simple or stupid. And she reminds us that we live in a world where maintaining her attitude is far more difficult than the one that most of us cling to.

What changed my opinion of the film instantly was the introduction of Scott, played so brilliantly by Eddie Marsan that I can't understand why his name isn't on all of the Best Supporting Actor shortlists. Scott is quite literally the inverse of Poppy. A driving instructor hired by Poppy as she casually moves on to more adult transportation, Scott all but channels road rage as he attempts to instruct Poppy. He spews consipracy theories, my favorite of which centers around his disgust of the education system (Poppy is a grade school teacher). And he yells at her for wearing boots while driving. It's not long before you can tell that he yells at her so that he doesn't have to admit that he's found his hardened defences weakened by her.

It's the same thing that happens to us as the audience -- Poppy starts out annoying and soon turns downright charming.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY has little in the way of cinematic flash, but it is certainly one of the best films by Mike Leigh, a director who has a growing handful of wonderful films (of which "Topsy Turvy" remains my favorite). I am certain that I will be pondering the implications of the story of this film for days and weeks to come. This is the kind of film you would talk about if it happened to be a novel and you were reading it in your book club. It is a profound, beautiful, vividly human film, with stand-out moments too numerous to add here (such as Poppy's visit to Spanish dancing classes or her seemingly out of place chat with a bizarre homeless man).

What a treasure! And the only thing more sad than the way most of us treat the Poppys of the world is the thought that most people I know will never see this film.

3.5 out of 4