Happy-Go-Lucky

The sporadically hilarious Happy-Go-Lucky lives up to its title with a pleasant sense of fun rather than with bubbly annoyance (which may be what you'd expect from a film like this). The zestful main character, Poppy (Sally Hawkins), always comes across as an actual human being who wants to infuse happiness into other people's lives, and never comes across as a mere joy-spewing caricature. This is thanks to the very good work done here by the relatively unknown Hawkins, who makes Poppy likable without getting on the audience members' nerves.

The film is at its best and at its most uproariously funny during the scenes involving the flamenco dancing lessons and during Poppy's scenes with Scott (Eddie Marsan), her driving instructor. The scenes with Scott lead to the film's most dramatically intense moment, and despite the extremely serious nature of said scene, it doesn't take away from the movie's overall sense of joyfulness.

For all its strengths, Happy-Go-Lucky isn't a particularly cohesive movie: each scene feels like an individual piece of acting or a separate skit (perhaps because they are partly improvised), and the scenes don't work together to successfully build up to a conclusion that effectively ties up the plot threads. In addition, as I said, there IS much hilarity to be found in the scenes involving the dancing and driving lessons, but the comedy doesn't come across as well in the film's other scenes (Poppy's interaction with the homeless man feels unnecessary, and it also doesn't seem to fulfill the purpose that the filmmakers may have been going for). However, the film does have enough funny and heart-warming (and sometimes heart-breaking) moments to warrant a recommendation, especially if you're looking for something uplifting minus the corniness.

6/10