Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Happy-Go-Lucky is a character study almost entirely dependent on Sally Hawkins' remarkable performance as Poppy — ebullient, disarming, and genuinely complex beneath the surface cheer. Hawkins earned a Golden Globe for good reason; it's a 4-caliber turn. The film has minimal conventional plot, drifting episodically through Poppy's life, which is either liberating or frustrating depending on viewer expectations — below average as structured narrative. Leigh's naturalistic, handheld visual style is competent and appropriate but not especially distinguished. The film's novelty lies in its sincere, non-ironic celebration of optimism as a moral stance, which is distinctive for Leigh, though the broader slice-of-life approach is familiar territory for him. The ending — particularly the resolution of the driving instructor subplot — is quietly effective without being revelatory.