British director Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies) has done it again: odd ball Londoners plus dysfunctional families plus stream of consciousness dialogue equals riveting drama-comedy hybrid. This time Leigh's protagonist is 30-year old primary school teacher Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins. Her incessantly sunny outlook and quirky wardrobe -- think adult-sized Punky Brewster -- might endear you or drive you crazy. Either way Hawkins' performance is stunning. And mostly you can't help but smile at how un-Hollywood the whole film is -- bad teeth, poor lighting, and best of all, no tidy bow tying things up at the end. - Michele Siegel

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Product Description

Academy Award nominee Mike Leigh (Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Vera Drake, 2004), delivers the delightfully fresh and cheerful comedy Happy-Go-Lucky. Free-spirited and effervescent, Poppy is a schoolteacher whose unstoppable optimism guides her life. Bubbling forth with giggles, laughter and jokes, life's a bowl of cherries even when she comes across a few pits. Whether it's a cranky driving teacher or a fiery flamenco instructor, Poppy embraces life on the sunny side of the street. It's a joyous, feel-good film you'll find irresistible. Bonus features include: Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky, Happy-In-Character, audio commentary by Director Mike Leigh

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8516 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2009-03-10
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com
Mike Leigh has made a career out of unusual films--who else would make a biopic about Gilbert & Sullivan?--but Happy-Go-Lucky may be his most unusual yet: A movie about a woman who is almost compulsively cheerful. Poppy (Sally Hawkins, star of the 2007 miniseries of Persuasion) may at first seem like the most annoying human being alive. She can't help but try to get a smile from someone who's ignoring her. When her bicycle gets stolen, she shrugs it off and decides to learn how to drive, which leads her to form a strange sparring relationship with her frustrated driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). Meanwhile, she takes flamenco lessons, visits with her squabbling family, tries to help a troubled boy at the school where she teaches, and encounters a homeless man--but this bland catalogue of events doesn't capture how Poppy's relentless optimism acts as a rorschach test to the people around her, reflecting back their worst or best feelings about themselves. Poppy, whose natural impulse is to empathize, discovers she needs to draw boundaries between herself and a world that wants to interpret her cheerfulness in unintended ways. The result is a unique movie experience, one that defies conventional notions of what's dramatic yet grows more absorbing with every moment. Just as it's hard to imagine anyone liking Poppy at the start of Happy-Go-Lucky, it's hard to imagine that anyone doesn't care about her by the movie's end. --Bret Fetzer

Review
Awards Include: Berlin International Film Festival 2008 Winner Best Actress Sally Hawkins; Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2008
Winner Best Actress Sally Hawkins;
British Independent Film Award 2008
Winner Best Supporting Actor Eddie Marsan; Golden Globes 2009
Winner Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical Sally Hawkins; Hollywood Film Festival 2008; Winner Hollywood Breakthrough Award Sally Hawkins;
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2008; Winner Best Actress Sally Hawkins; Best Screenplay Mike Leigh;
New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2008 Winner Best Actress Sally Hawkins, Winner Best Director Mike Leigh; Norwegian International Film Festival 2008 Winner Most Enjoyable Film (Theatre Owners) Bringer of Joy Award; Pula Film Festival 2008 Winner Golden Arena Best Director Foreign Film --imbd

Review
Sally Hawkins delivers an Oscar-worthy performance.- Thelma Adams, US Weekly
It's more than a movie, It's a Gift. 3 1/2 stars!; - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone --Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment