Review of Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) by Danielw. — 19 Oct 2008

You really have to give this movie a chance. I thought after 10 minutes that Leigh had committed one of the rare missteps of his career -- an investigation of happiness by a director who is more at home on the dark side of the soul.

But spending time with Poppy makes you realize that her happiness is actually a strategy for dealing with the dark side, by someone who understands what it would mean to give into it. There has been much talk of a seemingly incongruous scene in which the main character has a surreal, unintelligible but nonetheless deeply felt conversation with a homeless man.

I thought this was the centerpiece of the movie: Poppy is in a sense looking into the mirror at the shipwreck that can occur to a person if the commitment to happiness (and therefore, Leigh seems to be saying, to sanity) is not kept up.

The cast is as always in Leigh's movies astonishing.