Leigh doesn’t spend his whole time cluing you in to a bigger plot. Sometimes he likes adding amusing details about everybody. For instance, Suzy is late for a day trip visiting Poppy’s other sister, Helen. When she arrives at the apartment, she’s carrying a sack that’s never seen again. Any college student who ever gotten a chance at getting free laundry will realize exactly what’s in the sack and bust out laughing.
Happy-go-Lucky is just a gorgeous looking picture. Every frame contains all the colors of the rainbow, reflecting Poppy’s optimism. The film’s airy score suits Poppy well as she breezes through each scene. By the end, I hoped someone like her exists in the busy and stressful real world. It’s hard to find the time to do everything that makes you happy. Poppy makes it all seem within reach.
Grade: A
Bonus Features:
Happy-Go-Lucky doesn’t contain lots of extras, but all are filled with lots of filmmaking information and little congratulatory fluff. The audio commentary features director Mike Leigh describing the movie nonstop. If you want to know what he intended for each scene, he’ll tell you. He also clears up the British slang that Poppy uses which makes the movie even funnier. I haven’t seen a movie where a director remembers every little choice he made. For novice film buffs and beginning college students, this is an easy way to attend a lecture about the creative process.
Almost all driving scene featurettes on other DVDs focus on the special equipment they used. Being different, “Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky” also describes how the driving relates to the movie’s themes. “Happy In Character” is the main Happy-Go-Lucky documentary. In thirty minutes, it summarizes how Leigh designed the movie as a feature length improvisation. I thought it was interesting how Leigh works with the actors, separately building their characters. Then when it’s time to rehearse or shoot a scene, he introduces the actor for the first time to another actor playing a different character. Much of this segment overlaps with the commentary, but you get to listen to the actor’s experiences too.
Lastly, the sunny colored menu features photos of the cast made to look like paper cutouts as Zoe’s bright yellow Fiat putts across the screen. For a film that operates outside the studio system, that seems appropriate.
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