I'll admit I'm not the happiest person around. In fact, it's not even on the top ten words you'd use to describe me. So you can imagine my sentiments when one of my friends suggested I see a film called Happy-Go-Lucky. It took some pushing, but I finally got around to checking it out for myself. I'm surprised to say I ended up liking it, if not wondering why the last couple of movies I've seen have one hour expositions.
Poppy, a young grammar school teacher living in London, seems to be eternally happy. I'll admit for the first thirty minutes or so I thought she may have been mentally damaged. This may have been due to my disbelief at her lighthearted attitude toward everything, but somehow discovering she was an elementary school teacher cleared a lot of that up. As the film continues on we learn more about her life bit by bit and her philosophies as she takes driving lessons from her disgruntled teacher, Scott, and visits her family and friends.
The story never really lost me, but I couldn't help but feel it required some cutting. It seems as if the first hour of the film wanders randomly without too much of a singular driving force and only really serves as exposition. The last forty minutes is where the heart of the story is, but it takes a little too long to get there. Sure there needs to be an exposition, I just don't think it should continue without any real conflict for too long. The over all pacing suffers as a result and it seems as if there are really only two acts in the entire pictures.
That being said, I tought the whole thing was still an entertaining and compelling movie. The characters hold your interest the whole way through and the performances are generally pretty good. I just wish some of them show up more than two times. The flamenco teacher, for example, appears briefly only in two scenes where I thought she could have been balanced out throughout the course of the film. Driving instructor Scott acts as a good foil for Poppy, but his conflicts aren't quite resolved by the end and it leaves you wondering what is going to become of him.
I was apprehensive when I approached this film. I didn't want it to be ahamfisted portrayal of how people "just need to be happy more". Thankfully, Poppy's attitude merely turned out to be her way of nonconforming and not being as wound up as her pregnant and married younger sister. The overall message was to be more laid back about things and roll with the punches when they come. You don't have to greet everyone with a smile, but if that's what keeps you going, then go for it.