CINEMA: Happy-Go-Lucky

There are people are born optimists and others are born pessimists… and then there’s Poppy (Sally Hawkins), a woman who is so bright, cheery and defiantly sunny she’s a walking, talking advert for every happy drug on the planet. Except she isn’t on drugs, she’s actually like this naturally, which soon becomes very scary indeed.

Poppy’s a teacher in North London who loves her life, her sister and her friends and doesn’t ever have an off day. Her constant good humour however, fails to rub off on her racist driving instructor (Eddie Marsan), who is a total misanthrope. Mind you, I think if I had to sit next to Poppy chirruping incessantly in my ear, I might feel like being stroppy too. Because this is the big problem with Happy-Go-Lucky, one of director Mike Leigh’s lighter numbers, but starring a heroine who you will either love to bits or find annoying as hell.

The acting throughout is tremendous (Marsan in particular absolutely inhabits his role and a cameo by Karina Fernandez as a heart-broken flamenco teacher is ace) and Leigh uses his locations round London to maximum effect, but by the climax of the movie I could have easily slipped Poppy a slipping pill and felt no shred of remorse whatever.       Dee Pilgrim