I thought I was going to hate, or at least really dislike, Happy-Go-Lucky but I actually very nearly loved it.You should have stuck with your first instincts. I did. I give it a 4.
Really? You give it a 4? What could have possibly annoyed you about this movie?
Plenty. Her unrelenting positivity, the angry, spittle-covered driving instructor, the accents.
They're British. You can't fault them for their accents.
True but I also can't understand them. Did you see Mike Leigh's earlier film Naked? It was like watching a foreign film without subtitles. Marble mouthed gobbledy-gook.
I was afraid that her happiness would override anything true or recognizable in the film but I should have known better since Mike Leigh's films tend to be pretty grounded in reality. When I saw that she was a preschool teacher I feared for the onslaught of sappy crappy "life is a chair of bowlies" type nonsense but the movie was nothing like that. Brilliant, sparkling dialogue permeates the film and lead Sally Hawkins is an amazing actress who radiates joy throughout the film without obscuring brief glimmers of sadness and without being unable to show compassion and empathy to those around her. Happy-Go-Lucky makes a good case that we all lie in the bed we make for ourselves.
Poppycock! She was a mildly mental grinning goon who lived in a fantasy world that is depressing to everyone else since she is too far down the rabbit hole to really see herself as she really is. If this is what happens when we decide our own fate, I cast my fortune to the whims of the universe.
I think you could use a hug.
2 comments:
why did you think you wouldn't like this movie? good review - i really liked it a lot.
i thought her happiness would be cloying and grating and not charming and realistic. i thought she would e someone whose blindly happy ignoring the woes around her which wasn't the case. i also had no idea how much i'd love sally hawkins.
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