Almost all comedy is cynical. Someone or something is always the punch line and no matter how harmless it may seem, someone is being laughed at.
Our world is pretty sarcastic. A recent New York Times op-ed, "How to Live Without Irony," talked about how saturated with irony our present culture has become and how detrimental that can be. Irony creates a separation that allows people to be cold and to disengage from what's right in front of them. It's a way of life that rejects any kind of sincere optimism or genuine attempts at happiness.
This is why Mike Leigh's excellent film "Happy-Go-Lucky" (2008) can feel both original and fresh while never being too out-there. The movie removes all pessimism from its main character, the aptly named Poppy (Sally Hawkins). Poppy smiles and laughs her way through life, refusing to let the indifference or cruelties of the world around her take away her cheeriness.
At first, this is just as grating as it sounds. In the opening scene, Poppy enters a bookstore and continually tries to chat with a worker who seems like he would rather be dipped in liquid fire than have to converse with this perky woman. She ignores his distaste for her zest for life and continues to try to break down his walls to get him to engage. In the end, she fails miserably but this doesn't seem to faze her at all. The viewer gets the impression she has faced this kind of apathy before but refuses to give up.
Leigh has to do a similar job with Poppy, as he needs to break the audience's expectations of movies and their characters. There are very few, if any, main characters in stories that are earnestly happy and completely non-sarcastic without being seen as dumb, simple or uninformed. Poppy doesn't foolishly think everything is the best and great. She knows and acknowledges the awful aspects of life, yet she just chooses to be optimistic and not be sucked down into the negativity.
Because of this, Poppy has a child-like whimsy about her and much of the film's tension comes from how much of the world's gloominess can she run into without ever succumbing to it.
Poppy faces her biggest challenge in her diametrically opposite driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). Scott is a mess of rage and disapproval. His motto is "expect the worst" and he lives by it to the letter. His over-seriousness and barely suppressed anger at all that is wrong with the world is a true test to what Poppy tries to live by. While much of the comedy of the film stems from them butting heads, watching romantic comedies has taught me to expect Scott and Polly to learn from each other, become less extreme and fall in love.
This thankfully never happens, though, which speaks to the refreshing realism of the picture. The movie ignores those kinds of film tropes and instead focuses on the points it wants to make about how people live life and their attitudes about it. Instead, Polly meets and connects with a social worker who also wants to make a difference and who understands her quirkiness.
The two are compatible in a way that shows that Polly isn't looking for a guy to make her change because she doesn't need to change. She is happy and even if some of it is over the top - in one scene she laughs as she is in excruciating back pain - there is no reason why she shouldn't live her life like that if she wants to.
"Happy-Go-Lucky" is a low-key film, but it also challenges viewers to engage in the world and not get trapped under self-made negativity, which makes it an important watch for our current cultural time.
--
Joe Stile is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Joseph.Stile@tufts.edu.
