There’s a question every successful artist must ask themselves after a certain period: does s/he continue doing whatever s/he did to make successful in the first place, or explore new territories? To change may alienate your audience, but to remain the same may bore them. English director Mike Leigh has built up a reputation of social-realist kitchen-sink dramas. While these are a dime a dozen in the UK, Leigh displayed an understanding of the (usually) lower classes, often through his unscripted character development with talent actors such as Timothy Spall and Imelda Staunton (who got an Oscar nom for Leigh’s Vera Drake). But what are Leigh’s limits? Should he branch out (like he did in Topsy Turvy) or stick to his downbeat dramas? His latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky, asks and answers that question.
The film centres on Poppy, a relentlessly optimistic young woman. Indeed, the film starts with her bicycle being stolen, and rather than getting upset she sees it as an opportunity to learn to drive. In fact, the entire film seems to place poor Poppy in rather miserable situations, from one of her primary school pupils bullying another, to her flamenco teacher breaking down in the middle of class, to encountering a rambling tramp, and so on. The biggest trail for Poppy comes from her driving instructor, the aggressively officious Scott, who constantly berates Poppy for her attire and lack of silent concentration. Poppy, gets her revenge by constantly making small talk, breaking down Scott’s barrier of memorised facts, misanthropy, racism, and borderline religious dogmatism.
At an initial glance, the film is similar to Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days, in which a woman, first buried in sand up to her waist, and eventually her neck, babbles herself into a sense of merriness despite the misery of the world around her and the people she knows. But while Beckett is highlighting the futility of existence and taking an ironic look on life, Mike Leigh’s film does something different. Every character Poppy lives with is hung up on some issue, while Poppy isn’t. Her optimism, however ignorant, seems to give her a fulfilling life. Read the rest of this entry »
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