CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 10/10/08

Go Nowhere

By peter clines

Happy-Go-Lucky

Mike Leigh (also directed)

Poppy (Sally Hawkins), is a perpetually perky and positive primary school teacher—almost to the point of annoyance—who spends her free time with her best friend, Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), or her irritable and short-tempered driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). As the days go by, she deals with her angry sisters, a possibly abused student, and the unexpected advances of Scott. That doesn't sound like much of a story summary, granted, and there's a reason for that. Happy-Go-Lucky is an almost flawless character study of Poppy and the people around her, but they're seen in a framework that offers barely any story, minimal conflict, and even fewer resolutions. It's a true slice-of-life film, without a single beat or moment of the life pared away, or any attempt to present some sort of plot. It truly is just a random week in someone's life, where the characters don't grow or change in any respect. While free-form writer-director Mike Leigh (Vera Drake) has done better work in the past, this film shows the problems that arise when a story is allowed to go where it will without regard to pacing or plot. As the great Alfred Hitchcock once observed, "Drama is life with all the boring parts taken out," and in this film they've all been left in. While there's no arguing the characters in Happy-Go-Lucky are phenomenal, you just end up wishing they'd actually do something. After all, there's a reason Raiders of the Lost Ark doesn't have a half-hour scene of Professor Jones grading papers.

Happy-Go-Lucky
Miramax
Rated R; 118 min.

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Peter Clines has had a lifelong love affair with the movies. He grew up in New England, where he studied English literature and education, and now lives and writes somewhere in Southern California. If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.

Happy-Go-Lucky courtesy Miramax

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