Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

When I first started watching this, I thought "this might be somewhat inspiring...here's a woman whose choice is to find the humor in every situation..." but, boy, did Poppy get annoying quick. It was clear that she had the ability to be normal, but instead made a conscious effort to be cute and quirky (read fake and exhausting) with everyone -- friends, strangers, colleagues, and driving instructors -- alike.

The meat of the film comes from Poppy's scenes with her driving instructor. His temperament is a flipside Poppy's buoyancy: his default attitude being one of distrust and barely-contained annoyance. He is both frustrated and confused by Poppy's constant distracted air, giggles, and failure to obey his instructions when they conflict with her whims or cutesy desires. Yes, the guy has problems, but Poppy simply heaped more on top of them -- her sunniness exposed as complete self-absorption.

When Poppy's friend counsels her, regarding the instructor who had just become physically abusive, "You can't make everyone happy," and Poppy's response was "No harm in trying," I just stared at the screen in disbelief. The subject of the discussion was a man whose life had just been made extremely unhappy simply because he'd met her. The least the story could've given us is the closure that Poppy at least understood that "all happy all the time" is not honest and is likely to be misinterpreted by some.

D+