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Comments

• [1] Marc Naimark from Paris October 10, 2008 - 04:26AM

  I saw Happy Go Lucky the week it came out in France, and have to say it was a huge disappointment. What I saw was a pointless series of vignettes about a delusional woman, and left the theater not invigorated, but peeved.

  I would like Leonard to ask Mr Leigh a question: while Poppy is an unusual character, she could just possibly exist. But how could the events in which we see her live exist? I'm thinking in particular of her odd encounter with a vagrant. In the real world, a young woman who wanders alone at night in a dark and abandoned warehouse zone would likely be assaulted, robbed, raped, and/or killed. Yet nothing really bad happens to Poppy in this scene, or anywhere in the film, although at times she seems really to be asking for it (see her provocation of her driving instructor). Does Mr Leigh think this is in any way plausible?

  Another couple of questions:

  To what degree does he think Poppy's optimism is a choice, or just part of her character? In this light, how does he compare her with her sisters?

  And a point on which I've seen reviewers comment and which greatly annoyed me: why just drop the story of the bully schoolboy? I found her rather smirking responses to her new boyfriend's questions about the boy incredibly lame, mere token efforts by Mr Leigh to remember that he created a subplot he decided to abandon.

  
  
• [2] Patrick from Manhattan October 10, 2008 - 12:26PM

  I saw the movie at the New York Film Festival and I thought it was another very good movie by Mike Leigh. The driving and flamenco lessons are hilarious and the cast is amazing. During the film, I was thinking about how Leigh can film ordinary people going about their every day life and make it so interesting.

  One question I have is why Does Leigh come up with these theories about the 666 number? In Naked, his best movie in my opinion, the main character has this brilliant theory stating that bar codes are a sign of the apocalypse. I checked many bar codes after seeing the movie and never found one that was exactly as described in the movie. In Happy-go Lucky, the driving instructor claims the total height of the Washington monument is 666 ft, which is also false.