Film Happy-Go-Lucky

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British director Mike Leigh may have made his name with Naked (1993) — that nasty litany about male identity — but he truly excels when he places women front and center, as with 2004's Vera Drake, a treatise on a mid-century abortionist. His latest film paints another female study — albeit one in rose rather than somber greys. Schoolteacher Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a lemonade-from-lemons sort, whose solution to having her bike stolen is to sign up for driving lessons. Well-paced and giddily funny, Happy-Go-Lucky makes a compelling distinction between genuine kindness and a relentless need to please by interrogating how Poppy's unassailable cheer manifests in male-versus-female contexts.

– Lisa Rosman

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    I enjoyed this movie. It comments nicely on the impulse some of us have to make everyone happy, when sometimes we've just got to live our own lives and make sure we're happy ourselves.

    By Angie on 11/14/2008 at 12:16 pm
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