“Fun, bubbly and really enjoyable. Sally Hawkins just owns this role! A wonderful performance and a kind of movie that is just rare, wild and crazy fun!”
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DVD TITLE: Happy-Go-Lucky
DURATION: 119 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, English and Spanish Subtitles, Widescreen (2:35:1), Enhanced for 16×9 televisions
COMPANY: Miramax Films
RATED: R (for Language)
RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2009
Written and Directed by Mike Leigh
Produced by Simon Channing Williams
Co-Produced by Georgina Lowe
Executive Producers: James Clayton, David Garrett, Duncan Reid, Tessa Ross, Gail Egan
Director of Photography: Dick Pope, BSC
Production Designer: Mark Tildesley
Editor: Jim Clark
Music: Gary Vershon
Costume Designer: Jacqueline Durran
Make Up and Hair Design: Christine Bundell
Casting by Nina Gold
Starring:
Sally Hawkins as Poppy
Alexis Zegerman as Zoe
Andrea Riserborough as Dawn
Sinead Matthews as Alice
Kate O’Flynn as Suzy
Sarah Niles as Tash
Eddie Marsan as Scott
Sulvestra Le Touzel as Heather
Nonso Anozie as Ezra
Fun, bubbly and really enjoyable. Sally Hawkins just owns this role! A wonderful performance and a kind of movie that is just rare, wild and crazy fun!
Director and writer Mike Leigh returns with “Happy-Go-Lucky” and with his cool and non-traditional approach in movie making, the film benefits from the talent just becoming as one with their character and the fact that the actors themselves didn’t know what they were getting into, you get a unique style of film that may not have a major plot per se, but it’s more of how one woman’s attitude and behavior affects the people around her.
The film is about Poppy (Sally Hawkins), her way of looking at life is rather bubbly, always happy, optimistic, cracking jokes with a tinge of perverted humor. Rarely is she down in the dumps because of her cheery and happy attitude. And because she emits this attitude, some may interpret it as freaky (because she keeps talking and cracking jokes) but for those who know her, there is a sense of comfort to have her near them.
The main storyline is about the people that Poppy knows, some really well and some not well at all and how they react around her.
Her best friend Zoe, who she has lived with for ten years, has a good friendship with Poppy and both are school teachers. Zoe is a bit more of a realist but both managed to have fun in their single lives.
Throughout the film, you see Poppy learn the Flamenco, go to a chiropractor for her aching back, trying to befriend a homeless man, trying to meet an employee at the bookstore, meeting up with family, trying to find out why a bully in class is beating up kids.  And each person she comes across, she gives them a dose of her personality.
But she meets her challenge when she goes through driver’s training and encounters a frumpy, closed-minded racist who happens to be her driver’s instructor. But for Poppy, what becomes a session of paying for driver’s lessons, she looks at the opportunity to try to bring some sunshine to his life or at least get him to open up.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Happy-Go-Lucky” is presented in Widescreen (2:35:1). What I enjoyed about this film is that there are so many locations shot throughout London. May it be shopping, going to a club, going out on a date, driving lessons, Flamenco lessons, etc.  So, you get a good does of color.
As for audio, audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound but the film is primarily a dialogue-based film. There is use of music as well but mostly front channel usage on your home theater system.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
There are three special features included on the DVD for “Happy-Go-Lucky”. Included are:
- Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky – A five minute featurette featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the driving instruction parts of the film. Seven cameras used and how they were shot.
- Happy-in-Character – A Half hour long featurette with interviews with director Mike Leigh, Sally Hawkins (Poppy), Alexis Zegerman (Zoe) and Eddie Marsan (Scott). This was very interesting because you learn about Mike Leigh’s directorial style and how he wanted the talent to become the character. And how the film was just built overtime. A style of filmmaking of keeping the talent out in the dark but enough for them to learn about their roles and be in character.  In fact, almost with no definitive script, the talent just knew about their characters and not so much about the overall storyline since it was written as the film progressed. Thus, for the driving instructions, Eddie Marsan’s thought his character was about a racist, depressed and dark driver’s instructor and thought maybe it would be like “Taxi Driver” but when paired with the character of Poppy and her bubbly attitude and her constant bubbliness and jokes, he was shocked and realized that director Mike Leigh had something interesting in store for the film.
- Audio Commentary by Director Mike Leigh – Mike Leigh talks about working with the talent and how fortunate he had Sally Hawkins to play Poppy. Also, Leigh talks about how shots were done via a crane and sets up certain scenes and introducing people to certain British comments and helping the viewer understand the terminology such as “Out for Tea” which means “Supper”. There are a few periods of no commentary but overall an informative commentary.
When I first watched the film, I was thinking “Seinfeld”. Mainly because I found myself wondering where was the story going. Was this a film about nothing but yet entertaining and hilarious?
All I was seeing was Poppy interacting with all these people. But I realized that this was the basis of the film. Not a storyline about going from point A to point B, it was a story about interactions and how people are touched or were annoyed by Poppy’s character.
And after watching the special features and learning about Mike Leigh’s directorial style and how he really didn’t tell the talent about what the storyline was about and learning how much was improvised, you start to realize how special this film was. From Sally Hawkins portraying Poppy, that was just amazing. And just the back-and-forth lightning quick banter between Eddie Marsan’s Scott and Hawkins Poppy during the driving instructions, I’m not sure how much of that was improvised but that was just brilliant acting.
The film was a nice surprise. It definitely was not what I was expecting and in the end, you are left with many memories and visual images of Poppy and to make a film based on character interactions with no overall plot but basically a typical days in the life of Poppy, the film was quite unique and refreshing.
I was a little surprised though by the 80’s fashion and at first I was wondering if the film was taking place in the late 80’s or early 90’s because I never expected to see acid wash jeans in a film ever again but with the talk of texting and Playstations, you realize this is a modern film. In fact, in one of the featurettes, Marsan talks about utilizing late 80’s fashion for his character.
But overall, “Happy-Go-Lucky” was an enjoyable and an all-out fun film made believable by the wonderful performances by both Hawkins and Marsan.
If you are up for something different than the norm, definitely give “Happy-Go-Lucky” a try.