Happy-Go-Lucky – a merry exercise from usually dour director Mike Leigh – is something of a cinematic Rorschach test: how you respond to the heroine’s incessantly effervescent personality reveals a lot about your own personality. A thoroughly committed Sally Hawkins stars as Poppy, a 30-year-old schoolteacher who dresses like some sort of exotic bird – all feathers and fishnets – and whose mannerisms are equally chirpy. As the movie progresses, small instances – including a run-in with a driving instructor (Eddie Marsan) with a serious case of road rage – threaten to dampen her spirit, yet she largely remains irrepressible (and in the end is rewarded with a hunky social worker). I found her to be annoying, bordering on the delusional, but of course I’m a big old crab.
