HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
I have recently become underemployed due to one of my employers shutting down because of the “difficult economic climate” or something like that. If Disney can't keep their businesses open, the rest of us just may be screwed. I still work three days a week but that's not a whole lot to keep me occupied, especially in Chicago in the summertime. So I've made a vow that I must use my brain at least one time each day, and the least painful way for me to do that is to go back and start watching all the films I've missed recently. I'll try to write something about each film that I watch whether I like it or not, and may revisit some of my old favorites for the hell of it. I haven't been on my blogspot since early 2007 apparently, so I'm not even sure I can write anymore.
Mike Leigh's latest movie, Another Year, premiered at Cannes this year to generally great reviews, so I decided it was time to go back and watch his other recent film which I had missed, Happy-Go-Lucky. The movie feels slight even by Leigh's standards - his scripts are not plot-heavy, and his characters generally show no development whatsoever. This results in the majority of people who are not film nerds agreeing that his movies are boring. Some of his movies showcase characters who are such pathological losers that it's difficult to get through them without feeling acute discomfort (Naked and All or Nothing come to mind, as well as Life is Sweet.) In general his films come from the viewpoint of rather nihilistic people, but in Happy-Go-Lucky he acknowledges the possibility of another way of looking at things, even though it's clear this is not the view he shares.
The main character, Poppy, is a cheerful schoolteacher who chatters incessantly to strangers and spends most of her free time getting wasted with her girlfriends. Most of us know someone who is so relentlessly positive that she ends up being an annoyance rather than an inspiration. Poppy is that person, and Eddie Marsan, who plays Scott, is her driving instructor and polar opposite. As a plot device, having her thrust into an inescapable situation (a car) with Scott is neat, but it doesn't quite ring true. Scott's vile outlook on life quickly results in casual racist remarks and clear warning signs of an impending psychotic breakdown, but Poppy doesn't seem to pick up on these, which I think would be hard not to notice when trapped with a person in a car. Her interactions with her potential suitor also seem a little off; usually talking to your date in a squeaky baby voice and referring to yourself in the third person is the easiest way to scare a man off, but apparently not in this movie. There is also an extended scene where Poppy tries to have a meaningful conversation with a homeless man who randomly lashes his fists out towards nothing and gibbers nonsensically. I doubt any person in the world would try to cozy up to someone in that state unless they were being paid to do some sort of outreach.
A couple scenes stand out as vintage Mike Leigh, however: When Poppy and her sister visit their third sister Helen who is supposedly living the “dream life” in suburbia (pregnant and married, living in her own house), the situation quickly swirls down the drain as Helen berates Poppy for living an irresponsible and carefree life. It is clear that Helen is insecure in her situation and can't admit that two people living such different lives could each be happy in their own way. The premise of the movie is that you can choose to see the world however you wish to, and expresses this by focusing on the stark counterpoint of Poppy and her driving instructor; it might have been interesting to use more of the interactions between the sisters as a less extreme, but just as uncomfortable, example.
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwD7Zy6Vno
Mike Leigh's latest movie, Another Year, premiered at Cannes this year to generally great reviews, so I decided it was time to go back and watch his other recent film which I had missed, Happy-Go-Lucky. The movie feels slight even by Leigh's standards - his scripts are not plot-heavy, and his characters generally show no development whatsoever. This results in the majority of people who are not film nerds agreeing that his movies are boring. Some of his movies showcase characters who are such pathological losers that it's difficult to get through them without feeling acute discomfort (Naked and All or Nothing come to mind, as well as Life is Sweet.) In general his films come from the viewpoint of rather nihilistic people, but in Happy-Go-Lucky he acknowledges the possibility of another way of looking at things, even though it's clear this is not the view he shares.
The main character, Poppy, is a cheerful schoolteacher who chatters incessantly to strangers and spends most of her free time getting wasted with her girlfriends. Most of us know someone who is so relentlessly positive that she ends up being an annoyance rather than an inspiration. Poppy is that person, and Eddie Marsan, who plays Scott, is her driving instructor and polar opposite. As a plot device, having her thrust into an inescapable situation (a car) with Scott is neat, but it doesn't quite ring true. Scott's vile outlook on life quickly results in casual racist remarks and clear warning signs of an impending psychotic breakdown, but Poppy doesn't seem to pick up on these, which I think would be hard not to notice when trapped with a person in a car. Her interactions with her potential suitor also seem a little off; usually talking to your date in a squeaky baby voice and referring to yourself in the third person is the easiest way to scare a man off, but apparently not in this movie. There is also an extended scene where Poppy tries to have a meaningful conversation with a homeless man who randomly lashes his fists out towards nothing and gibbers nonsensically. I doubt any person in the world would try to cozy up to someone in that state unless they were being paid to do some sort of outreach.
A couple scenes stand out as vintage Mike Leigh, however: When Poppy and her sister visit their third sister Helen who is supposedly living the “dream life” in suburbia (pregnant and married, living in her own house), the situation quickly swirls down the drain as Helen berates Poppy for living an irresponsible and carefree life. It is clear that Helen is insecure in her situation and can't admit that two people living such different lives could each be happy in their own way. The premise of the movie is that you can choose to see the world however you wish to, and expresses this by focusing on the stark counterpoint of Poppy and her driving instructor; it might have been interesting to use more of the interactions between the sisters as a less extreme, but just as uncomfortable, example.
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwD7Zy6Vno
posted by ginsoakedgirl at 8:21 PM
2 Comments:
"Her interactions with her potential suitor also seem a little off; usually talking to your date in a squeaky baby voice and referring to yourself in the third person is the easiest way to scare a man off, but apparently not in this movie."
HA. Turns out you can still write.
I loved All or Nothing, but that was the last time I watched a Mike Leigh film. Toronto 2002, I think.
We actually walked out of this movie. So. Boring.
I'm glad you're back in the blogosphere; now I have another something to distract me at work. (FB and Sporcle are getting tired!)
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