Director’s Mike Leigh’s film, Happy Go Lucky, is about thirty-year old Poppy, a lively school teacher who lives life by the laugh, but is unable to charm her serious, seemingly depressed peers. She exhibits the same nature as her primary school students with her ever sunny outlook on life, and finds ways to bring a smile to others.
Her pot-smoking friends, who cannot contain their high-flying wit, are Poppy’s only outlet of freedom in a gloomy city. Once her bicycle is stolen, she must finally learn how to drive, and the movie follows Poppy’s nonsensical laughter from her outings with her friends to her driving lessons under the serious guise of instructor, Scott, who tells her in anger that she “celebrates chaos”.
Then we are treated to Poppy’s flamenco dance teacher, Karina, who takes every dance instruction as if she was training army soldiers for battle. Each moment we share, even the most mundane activities, is sugary sweet with the actress who laughs not at the seriousness of the people she meets, but at the world for not seeing the lighter side of life. Audiences will fall in love with the tickled creature who can’t encounter a doctor’s touch without turning pink from laughter. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay written Leigh.