"Happy-Go-Lucky" - A New Mike Leigh Film

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge Mike Leigh fan! I love everything that he does, from his various 1970's BBC "play's for today" of which "Abigail's Party" "Nuts In May" and "Grown-Ups" were true classics!, to the modern-day classic films that are "Secrets & Lies" "All Or Nothing" and "Vera Drake".

Here in Brasil British films rarely get released at the cinema and when they do they are often very delayed so I have my fantastic Dad that always sends me the films that I can't get here on Dvd from London.

So last month the postman arrived here with my most eagerly-awaited Dvd of the past few years! Mike Leigh's new film "Happy-Go-Lucky"

For anyone who hasn't yet seen it I suggest you drop everything now and try to get hold of it somehow! Very often many small independent films get lost amongst the hundreds of unneccesary Hollywood Blockbusters that are released every year and when one comes along that is as wonderful as "Happy-Go-Lucky" it is like a breath of fresh air!

Sally Hawkins plays Poppy, a North-London schoolteacher who shares a flat with her best friend Zoe. She is a steadfast optimist, always seeing everything on the bright side, laughing and joking her way through life with her vibrant personality and cheering the miserable people up with her happy disposition, helping anyone that comes into contact with her and always dressed in bright-coloured clothes that stand out against the grey backdrop of London. I think this is Mike Leigh's most lighthearted film to date, although (being a Mike Leigh film) as the film proceeds we see that there certainly are more layers to Poppy than the seemingly simple appearance we see at first. She gets hurt along with the rest of us in life and her optimistic approach seems to be a survival mechanism that we all need in some way or another... but no matter how much life tries to kick her in the teeth she still smiles back, but is she really happy?

An example of her positivity is at the beginning of the film she gets her bicycle stolen from outside a shop and instead of saying "Oh no, just my bad luck!" she says "Oh No! I never even got to say goodbye!" Another is when her friend Zoe says to her "You can't make everybody happy Poppy!" and she replies "There's no harm in trying though, is there?!"

So as her much-loved bicycle has "flown the nest now" she decides to start learning how to drive and books some driving lessons, and therein the fun starts: her banter between her driving instructor, Scott, who has some serious problems (actor Eddie Marsan) gives us some of the films funniest and also most powerful scenes.

This is a film with a truly huge heart, which has one more classic Mike Leigh character: Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, who has already won the Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Actress 2008.... let's hope it is an indication of many more awards to come! Mike Leigh has to date also won Best Director Foreign Film at the Pula Film Festival and Bringer Of Joy Award for Most Enjoyable Film at the Norwegian International Film Festival 2008 for Happy-Go-Lucky. Fingers crossed for the Oscars 2009!

"Happy-Go-Lucky" - Funny, Sad, Hilarious, Heartbreaking, Poignant, Sensitive, Sensationally British - Classic Mike Leigh!!

See it now!!! I guarantee that you will come away from the film smiling!