Happy Go Lucky
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
June 9, 1980 in Harlow, Essex, England, UK
9 July 1976, London, England, UK
15 August 1980, England, UK
1986, Bury, Lancashire, England, UK
1958, Jersey, Channel Islands
1981, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
27 April 1976, Dulwich, London, England, UK
1977, London, England, UK
9 June 1968, Stepney, London, England, UK
28 May 1979, London, England, UK
19 January 1976, London, England, UK
1980, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, UK
1978, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK
20 November 1981, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, UK
21 May 1953, London, England, UK
August 26, 2009
Leigh's most visually beautiful picture since Topsy-Turvy, Happy-Go-Lucky is all about the clashing and connecting of such emotional biospheres.
October 31, 2008
It's a powerful argument for optimism.
October 28, 2008
The intentions of this oddity are muddled, but the small portraits of ordinary people choosing their path through the daily range of depression and delight are fully alive.
April 18, 2009
While Sally Hawkins turns out an award-worthy performance as Poppy, I quickly became bored with her life and all the turmoil surrounding it.
June 14, 2016
Once we relax enough to be carried along with the overlapping waves of jokes and remarks, the occasional quip pierces through the tornado of words and strikes a funny bone, sometimes before we realize why we are laughing.
November 13, 2008
Hawkins wears her grin in almost every scene, but she gives us hints that this dizzy 30-year-old is deep, as are the disappointments that might have caused Poppy to don this mask. It's a performance of sustained, childlike wonder and adult wit.
October 31, 2008
I've never used this cliché in a review before, and God forbid I ever use it again, so pay close attention: Happy-Go-Lucky is the feel-good movie of the year.
June 12, 2010
If you leave the theater feeling uplifted (and unless your heart is made of cold gray concrete, you will), it wasn't due to manipulation, but a result of the film having honestly earned it.
October 30, 2008
Leigh pushes the story in a more interesting direction, asking whether people find happiness or simply will it on themselves.
March 23, 2009
Few actors could have pulled off this role successfully, as it requires great energy, charisma and depth to make Poppy credible and so much more than first impressions.
October 31, 2008
Sally Hawkins, in a blinding, Oscar-worthy piece of acting so good you barely see it, plays Poppy, a perpetually upbeat elementary schoolteacher in London.
