Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: R for language,
some nudity and mature themes
Run
Time: 1
hour, 58 minutes
Director
Mike Leigh knows how to draw the best from his actors, putting them through the
paces of a rigorous rehearsal schedule that nets the dramatic realism of
improvisational scripting. Sally Hawkins’ enchanting performance is yet another
example that Leigh’s trademark technique is working.
Poppy
(Hawkins) is a glass-half-full sort of girl for whom lemons become lemonade
each and every day. She dresses in Technicolor “chic”, stays fit by bouncing on
a trampoline and wants to learn flamenco. When her precious bicycle is stolen
her only lament is a missed opportunity to say goodbye.
Poppy lives
with best friend and fellow singleton Zoe (Alexis Zegerman) and works as a
primary school teacher in contemporary London. Once sans
bicycle she determines to learn to drive and turns to the Axle School of
Motoring whose wrathful instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan) arrives full of piss
and vinegar.
Scott is
yet another of life’s little challenges, a poster child for the miserable
working class and Poppy’s polar opposite in conduct and attitude. In Leigh’s
hands this means comic moments aplenty (Scott intoning the word “Enraha” as a
spiritual driving aid) and scarcely concealed hostility (Scott’s shocking
bigotry and repellent jealousy).
On the
downside Poppy wants everyone to be upbeat along with her and that’s a tall
order. Her incessant cheer delicately masks a gracefully bruised soul that her
30-year old single self refuses to acknowledge; a sparse loneliness of
tentative depth. Relentlessly expecting the best of others as well as herself means Poppy’s bound to be thwarted more often than
not.
The plot is
spare, even minimalist; a series of snappy vignettes that let the irrepressible
Poppy shine (at the chiropractor, visiting her pregnant sister, romancing a
co-worker, etc.) while offering up a rangy assortment of clues as to what makes
the girl tick. Her perpetual optimism feels morally authentic, not as blithely
sentimental as the titles suggests.
Leigh is
king of the keen observations on the English middle class -- think the
venerable “Secrets and Lies” and “Vera Drake” -- typically dark bordering on
depressing. That said the lively rhythms of “Happy”, and their buoyant leading
lady, are a welcome breath of fresh air.