Happy Go Lucky is a film by the British director Mike Leigh who is known for his character-driven films about British culture. It centers around the character of Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, who has on overwhelmingly positive and humourous outlook on life.
The story revolves around her relationships with friends and people that she meets. In particular, the story focuses on her driving lessons with a driving instructor called Scott, played by Eddie Marsan, who has a completely different outlook and a sometimes threatening demeanour. Poppy’s attempts to inject some humour into the driving lessons and the effect of this on Scott are brilliantly done.
The driving lessons are the main story but the film covers quite a lot of ground, ranging from Poppy’s social life, her job as a primary school teacher, bullying at the school, Poppy’s relationship with her sisters, a meeting with a tramp, and the start of a relationship with a male social worker.
Overall, the film is more cheerful than some other Mike Leigh films that I have seen and I finished the DVD with a smile. The main character really shows her compassion and positive approach throughout the film and I found that it was impossible not to like this.
Buy Happy Go Lucky at Amazon UK