This weeks pick: Happy-go-lucky
Happy-go-lucky is about perpetually happy London primary school teacher, named Poppy. Her cheerfulness and happiness is the type the tends to grate on people rather than cheer them. She cannot resist attempting to make cheerful conversation with strangers, and when they strangers attempt to disengage it only makes her try harder. Always encouraging them to "stay happy". When she finds her bike stolen she cheerfully decides she will take driving lessons instead of buying another bike. Her mode of transportation in the meanwhile (the bus) seems like one grand adventure for her. She laughs when the crowded bus pushes her to and fro. Poppy definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer- expressing her personality through her clothes, and teaching style. Her driving instructor, Scott, on the other hand is a very serious person. taking his job as an instructor with the up most seriousness. He and Poppy instantly clash. He doesn't understand why she could be so happy, and takes her cheerfulness as a lack of concentration on learning. Poppy is not a naive happy person, she is fully aware of how her actions are effecting others- and she seems to get a kick of trying to wind people up even more. This is exactly how she reacts to her driving instructor, every time he tries to make her concentrate or be serious and she only playfully tries even harder to tease. Poppy completely unafraid to try new things, she hurts her back on a trampoline, and joins flamenco lessons with a co-worker (where she looks completely out of place with her bright colors and boots), and having spent the past ten years teaching around the world with her flatmate. As her driving lessons continue she learns that she is not the only student that annoys her instructor, another he complains is rude and thinks he knows everything- compelling him to throw the boy out and have him find another instructor. He also teaches her about the pyramid the mirrors make in the car and the eye at the top of the pyramid, en-ra-hah, which he refers to constantly through the lessons. At school Poppy notices one of she students becoming increasingly violent to others and has a social worker come in and speak to him. As they are meeting with the student the quietly flirt with each other. And as she walks him out of the school the playfully plan to see each other again. One Sunday as she and her flatmate return from visiting her ultra serious sister in the country, Poppy spies Scott watching and waiting on the street where she lives- as she moves to wave at him he runs away. Poppy looks for but cannot find him, and ponders why he was there. The next week Poppy meets Tim, social worker, for their first date. The joke and play through the whole experience clearly enjoying themselves. They find themselves back at Tim's flat and continue their sweet form of playfulness throughout their first night together. The next morning Poppy worries that she will be late for her driving lesson- Tim offers to give her a lift, so he can stay with her a little longer. Poppy rushes to get ready and she and Tim meet Scott just in time for lessons. Scott clearly reacts badly to seeing Poppy and Tim together and rushes to the car. Tim gives Poppy a long kiss and promises to call her. As their lesson begins Scott is driving and clearly agitated. He speeds through traffic and makes poor decisions to pass others. As it is Poppy's turn to drive she just sits in the seat saying that the lesson is over and not permitting Scott to drive anywhere. In a rare glimpse of Poppy's serious side she recounts all of the reasons Scott should not be driving- may of the same ones he has used on her in the past- how he is endangering his life, hers, and other drivers. Scott continues to rage- not able to believe that Poppy will not give him the keys to his own vehicle. He cases her demanding the keys back. It is not until she threatens to call the police that he stops and and finally verbalizes why he is so angry. He tells Poppy that she was never taking this seriously, that she was just trying to mess with him the whole time, entrap him, wearing the ridiculous clothes and saying silly things, all in an effort to drive him crazy and that she didn't care to learn at all. Poppy is shocked - she asks him to sit in the car with her and they can talk about it. In the car he asks- "Same time next week?" and she just shakes her head no. He says "In am a good driving instructor" to which Poppy nods. She quietly walks away. Next we see her and her flatmate rowing a boat, they are talking about her driving lessons, her flatmate saying she should have called the police, and Poppy disagreeing. Her flatmate talks of how she should give up smoking, Poppy agreeing asks what she should give up. Her flatmate says: Trying to make everyone happy, claiming that it will never work. Poppy replies with "It doesn't hurt to try through" As it fades to black you can hear Poppy talk on the phone to Tim- clearly joking once again making plans to see each other.
My thoughts- Very funny- cheerful movie. I like that this represented a movie someone who was perpetually cheerful- without making them dimwitted or naive. Sally Hawkins- won a golden globe for her portrayal. I feel that Scott was spot on and his reactions all seemed genuine. Tim- was oddly attractive- cute in a way only British men can be- but the accent makes up for a lot. I seriously wanted the movie to go on for like 30 more minutes, I wasn't ready for it to stop when it did.
