Honest to goodness: Finding virtue in 'Happy-Go- Lucky'

2012; Issue: 65 Linguagem: Inglês

ISSN

1449-857X

Autores

Susanna Nelson,

Tópico(s)

Law in Society and Culture

Resumo

Mike Leigh is the master of the character study film, documenting ordinary people who live their lives outside of the norm. A seam of oddball characters and misfits runs through his work - from the jittery chainsmoker Nicola (Jane Horrocks) in 'Life is Sweet' (1991) to the arch-misanthrope Johnny (David Thewlis) in 'Naked' (1993). In 'Happy-Go- Lucky' (2008), Leigh examines the life of Poppy (Sally Hawkins), a garrulous thirty-year-old North London primary school teacher with a sunny disposition. Poppy has a close-knit bunch of friends and a healthy social life, and she takes a running jump at most of the challenges that she faces armed with nothing but her cracking sense of humour and a belief that things will all work out for the best. It says something about the ever-evolving 'norm' that Leigh's latest outcast is someone so patently well adjusted - these days, the real fish out of water is the happy person in an unhappy society.

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