Review of Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) by Samuel J — 04 Sep 2009

"You keep on rowin', and I'll keep on smilin'.".

Director: Mike Leigh.

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Andrea Riseborough.

Running time: 118 minutes.

Country: UK.

Happy-Go-Lucky is a fantastic film with such an inspiring feeling to it. It is a film that truly would make you feel good. It is a story about life-changing, love, friendship and even manipulation. It made me feel really great because of the beautiful characters, the very delightful plot and the message it gives out. It is quite emotional because Poppy loves being her jolly, cheerful self. It is a film also about enjoying life and actually getting on with it. Happy-Go-Lucky is this year's Juno and Little Miss Sunshine.

Sally Hawkins gives the best female comedy performance of 2008 thus far. Poppy is a year old primary school teacher who just gets on with life like a lazy gift. She is hilarious in which Sally was really fantastic at when playing Poppy. When I saw her Golden Globe nomination and her possible Oscar nominated performance, I couldn't believe it was that woman from British TV sketch comedy show Little Britain. Sally is a delightful, intelligent and extremely sexy actress and so is Poppy as a character which makes Sally Hawkins the perfect actress to play Poppy. The name 'Poppy' is a bright and delightful name which connects well with her personality. She seems like a nice person to meet but Poppy acts like a bitch at times so that is the negativity of the character especially when she is with driving instructor Scott. Sally will win Golden Globe and will hopefully earn Oscar nomination too. Eddie Marsan delivers a hard hitting performance as driving instructor Scott because Eddie looks like that strict and stubborn type.

This is the first of Mike Leigh films that I've seen. He directs this film mostly to how Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed Little Miss Sunshine. He creates a new scenery so to speak of characters to come across and face. Most comedies are original with original scripts. The script was very good, very emotional and very humourous. Happy-Go-Lucky is the second best comedy of 2008 after In Bruges. Sally Hawkins has drawn my attention to her now just like Ellen Page did in Juno last year. One of my top films of 2008. Deserves quite a lot of Oscar chances. It was underrated when released in UK in April but isn't anymore after Globe nominations were announced and the attention the Academy has given to it. Masterpiece!!