Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Directed by Mike Leigh
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
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What critics compared Happy-Go-Lucky to
In many ways, Happy-Go-Lucky is the flip side of the director's searing 1993 masterwork, Naked, in which David Thewlis played a bitter, angry drifter.
This is writer/director Mike Leigh's ("Secrets & Lies," "Vera Drake") best film since 1993's "Naked" and, in a sense, its photo negative twin - female centric as opposed to male, light vs. dark, optimistic vs. nihilistic and as much a breakout role for Hawkins as "Naked" was for Thewlis.
Hawkin's performance is basically the same thing as Happy-Go-Lucky itself, which like most of Leigh's films was developed as a narrative by the actors and director, rather than written down ahead of time; and unlike most of his films (of the ones I've seen, Naked comes closest) almost completely eschews plot in favor of character study.
Two early Leigh films Life Is Sweet (1991) and Naked (1993) disturbed me so much I had to leave the theater.
Movies like “Vera Drake” and “Naked” have given Leigh a very undeserved reputation as a grim sourpuss, but if you watch any of his other films I referenced above, you’ll know he’s someone who sees the humor in life’s darkest moments and who ultimately believes in the resilience — and, without being gross about it, the good — in people.
His vivid, funny, and biting films have made us aware of the misery of dashed expectations (“High Hopes”), the power of surly narcissism (“Naked”), the underside of creative partnership (“Topsy-Turvy”), the depths of working-class forlornness (“All or Nothing”) and inarticulate sacrifice (“Vera Drake”).
Twisting the relentless upbeat energy of Poppy from Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky into something more sinister…
The bubbliness of her character in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky…
Hawkins’ Laura is initially introduced as an unfiltered, troublesome cousin to her Happy-Go-Lucky protagonist Poppy, only to plumb new depths with every scene…
Hawkins, so sweet in practically everything (Happy-Go-Lucky, Paddington), pulls off a terrifying about-face…
…many may be fond of her bubbly turn in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky…
Hawkins, forever remembered for Mike Leigh’s comedy Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)…
She's Natalie Portman's character in Garden State, Kate Hudson in Almost Famous, Jennifer Aniston in Along Came Polly-- free-spirited, gorgeous women with no inner lives of their own, just enough “depth” and “sense of adventure” to inspire a schlubby guy to break out of his mold and tap into life, or some other kind of nonsense.
Hawkins is quite good, in a very different kind of role from her Oscar-nominated turn in Happy-Go-Lucky; in sharp contrast to that character, there's a deeply felt sadness to her Jill.
By Myriam Ghattas British director Richard Ayoade’s debut film for the big screen, “Submarine” (2010) tells the tale of Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), a 15-year-old kid with run-of-the-mill teenage concerns: the conquest, and safekeeping, of a girlfriend, Jordana (Yasmin Paige), and the preservation of a healthy relationship between his parents, Jill Tate (Sally Hawkins of “Happy-Go-Lucky”) …
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Meanwhile, several supporting performances are exquisitely realized, from Sally Hawkins (2008's " Happy-Go-Lucky "), unforgettably compassionate as the against-the-grain Miss Lucy, to newcomers Isobel Meikle-Small and Ella Purnell as the younger Kathy and Ruth, confident and beyond natural?not to mention dead ringers for their adult counterparts.
During the first act of the film, director Mark Romanek (“One Hour Photo”) take full advantage of the charming yet vaguely sinister effect conveyed by orderly, healthy rows of neatly dressed schoolchildren singing in British accents before a faculty of “guardians” that includes chilly Charlotte Rampling and friendly Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”).
It’s probably sheer coincidence that Poppy sports the same name and sunny temperament as the heroine of Mike Leigh’s 2008 film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” a live-action comedy that also works as a subtle dramatic inquiry into the elusive nature of happiness: Why do some people have it and others don’t?
But the movie’s opening scene, where the great British actor Eddie Marsan (from Happy-Go-Lucky and Tyrannosaur among many many others) plays a vintage-obsessed Gen-X collector who first dusts off the cursed tape and gets the horror ball a’rollin, presents its case smartly right upfront—it can be seen there smack-dab in his spoiled self-interest, locked away in his perfectly curated man-cave, as he without hesitation passes the evil off to those who come after, like its a game of hot potato with the nuclear football in hand.
Entranced and sympathetic, Elisa sneaks into the lab whenever she can to visit the Amphibian Man—something that would seem like a rash decision if Hawkins, whose inner energy as an actress overflowed in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky , didn’t give the character such an impish spirit.
Happy-Go-Lucky’s Sally Hawkins stars as Eliza, a mute woman with no family or past.
Fox Searchlight’s romantic fantasy-drama “The Shape Of Water” is set in 1960s Baltimore and stars Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) as Elisa, a single woman who works as a janitor at a top-secret government laboratory.
If you saw her get the Oscar nod for “Blue Jasmine” or her Golden Globe-winning performance in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” you owe it to yourself to see this film.
But it’s Hawkins who makes this film truly soar, turning in a voiceless performance every bit as beguiling as her cheery prattler in Happy-Go-Lucky .
Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) is Eliza, a lonely mute living above a movie theater in Baltimore in the early 1960s.