This was significantly less annoying than I was expecting, and I would go as far to say that I really, really liked it. Poppy, the protagonist pictured in the poster to the right, is excessively cheerful and optimistic. I keep hearing that she’s a girl that is just happy all of the time, which is also implied in the title, but I don’t know that I would describe her as always happy. She says ‘hello’ to just about anyone and tries to start up conversations with strangers, talks quickly and has a really funny sense of humor, and she calmly shrugs it off when her bike is stolen, but I think that she is just very good at avoiding annoyances and wants people to feel better after spending time with her. The great thing about this film is that it shows how her ‘happiness’ isn’t actually working in the way she’d like it to, and often does the opposite for people.
One criticism I do have is that the film feels a little black and white. The happy people are really happy, and the unhappy people are flat out miserable, misanthropic, and, in one case, satanic. Obviously, it’s a little more grey than that, but it’s Sally Hawkins acting and Mike Leigh’s writing that makes it so it all remains feeling natural. There is a strange scene between Poppy and a homeless man that is one of the most beautiful scenes I saw this year. The ending is really intense, and the final scene is perfect in an ‘everything is back to normal, but what is normal?’ kind of way.
I almost feel that everything has already been said about Happy Go Lucky, which is why I haven’t gotten around to writing about it, even though I liked it quite a bit (particularly, as you said, Hawkins and Leigh’s screenplay). I want to watch it again to examine the constant theme of teacher-student that can be seen in at least three separate settings.