Entertainment

GOING THE EXTRA SMILE

MIKE Leigh, long the UK’s master of lower-class misery in films such as “Vera Drake,” quite agreeably switches gears with the beguiling comedy “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

Poppy, memorably played by Sally Hawkins, is one of those individuals who sees every glass as half-full.

First seen happily bicycling through North London, she shrugs off the vehicle’s theft with her trademark smile.

I initially found her unfailingly sunny demeanor – even when she develops a back problem – somewhat annoying. While it’s easy to write her off as a ditz, subsequent events demonstrate she’s usually the smartest person in the room.

Poppy, who likes parties and drinking, is also a genuinely dedicated and compassionate grade school teacher, who knows how to handle a bully and quietly confesses to a colleague her anger at neglectful parents.

Mostly, though, she’s a 30-year-old cockeyed optimist whose worldview is severely tested in several encounters with her driving instructor, Scott (a very good and funny Eddie Marsan).

Scott, a paranoid racist, is Poppy’s polar opposite, attracted to her despite the fact that she literally drives him to distraction during the lesson.

She insists on wearing her beloved high-heeled boots, even after his repeated lectures that they’re not proper footwear for the task.

Scott does not take it well, to put it mildly, when Poppy becomes involved with the school’s social worker (Samuel Roukin).

Leigh vividly defines the colorfully dressed Poppy’s character through interactions with her low-key roommate (Alexis Zegerman), a fearsome tango teacher (Karina Fernandez), her pregnant sister (Caroline Martin) and a homeless man (Stanley Townsend).

For all of its laughs and a star-making performance by Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky” represents a serious philosophical inquiry by Leigh, who has illustrated a consistently pessimistic view of humankind in his semi-improvised movies.

When someone tells Poppy, “You can’t make everyone happy,” her rejoinder is, “No harm in trying.” Something to think about.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY

Viva Sally Hawkins!

Running time: 118 minutes. Rated R (profanity). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Sunshine.