HAPPY GO LUCKY 3.5**** If ever a film was wonderfully captured in its title, it is “Happy-Go-Lucky”. Those five syllables perfectly describe the light and breezy tone of this film and how you will feel as you leave. This is a movie that celebrates optimism which is a welcome relief from the Hollywood blockbusters of late that tend to be so dark and cynical. At last a “feel good” movie from 2008.

Often characters in movies who appear to be happy are not portrayed as regular people but , instead, as idiots, buffoons or self-indulgent . But here the main character is not only genuinely happy, but also intelligent, generous, compassionate, loving and gentle. She is Poppy (played brilliantly by the British actress, Sally Hawkins). She is a 30ish single British school teacher who lives in a small flat with a fellow teacher. She enjoys having a fun time but is also serious about her job. When somebody steals her bicycle, she begins taking driving lessons from a driving instructor, Scott , who is a sad, bitter, wholly unhappy man. They are diametric opposites. Poppy flits through life like a exuberant butterfly while Scott trudges through it like a constipated badger, angry at the world. Poppy tries to help Scott, but he resists. A confrontation is inevitable and from it intriguing questions arise.

Sally Hawkins delivers a utterly captivating tour de force performance as Poppy, displaying an indomitable spirit and persistently cheerful outlook on life, even when life punches you in the face She should have been nominated for Best Actress for the Oscars but lost out to bigger pictures and more popular actresses. She reminded me in a physical sense of a British version of a thinner, slightly taller and less busty Jennifer Love Hewitt, but with the skill to act up a storm and literally shine and glow at the same time. With Poppy, we have one of the screen's most memorable and courageous characters. A young woman whose seemingly endless good cheer is actually an extraordinary act of will and self-fulfillment. "Happy-Go-Lucky" is an ode to joy and happiness, not as a mindless bliss but as something of deep seriousness, something that comes from within not from without ... from a positive outlook on life, a trusting stance towards life, and a willingness to change the things we can change and accept the things we can't.

I left this movie with a big smile on my face, feeling very “happy” and quite “lucky”……so thumps up to “Happy Go Lucky” !!!

NOTE: You’ll have to RENT this one…it was a British Indie film that didn’t last long in the theatres. Find it…it’s worth the effort.