Starring Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman

Directed by Mike Leigh

Poppy Cross likes to make people happy. Not as a jolly blend of Maria von Trapp and Mother Theresa, but in a wilfully sunny manner that seeks out the shiny side of life.

Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky is a delightful comedy of mannerisms that digs into society’s responses to the terminally cheerful. It’s a study that also plays out on audience expectation – such is Leigh’s body of work that one expects calamity around every corner. The cloud behind this silver lining is felt most when Poppy, a recent student of driving, presses all of her over-wrought instructor’s buttons.

“It’s not easy being you is it?” she says after a particularly rabid tantrum about the disease of multiculturalism.

Yet carefree is not to be confused with careless. Leigh reveals a multi-faceted character whose purposeful outlook marks a jumping-off point to examine the intransigent negativity of urban dwellers.

Supported by her closest friend Zoe, Poppy is an utterly joyful and thoroughly infectious character. She’s a latter day David who tackles towering misery with a quick laugh and deprecating wit, felling unhappiness wherever it stands.

Not that Zoe is entirely convinced – “are you happy?” she asks with concern. It’s a good question – can anyone be this joyful without medication? And that question is exactly Leigh’s point.

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