Happy Go Lucky - A review

I went and saw Happy Go Lucky instead of election results last night. I initially thought I'd be the only one in the theater, but about 10 people ultimately showed up. It is usually hard for me to tell if I liked an indie film or international film. They don't pack that punch that I think American films do... Not punch exactly... Ok I think popular American movies (which I love so I don't consider what I'm about to say slamming them at all and yes I'm generalizing about a type of American movie, and I'm generalizing about the type I watch so maybe it would be easier to say the movies I watch are kind of designed for the ADD in us.) are kind of designed for the ADD in us. And by that I mean that things happen. There's a distinct arc. I know one of the reasons I generally don't like Indie films (besides the weird lack of affectation that I think I frequently see in them) is because they usually feel to me like we're just wandering through a story with no real place to go and then it is done and you're sitting there like what the hell just happened. Oh maybe I mean subtlty. There's a lack of subtlty in mainstream popular American films of the variety that I watch. Christ that's a lot of disclaimer isn't it...

Anyway, I liked Happy Go Lucky. I liked that British film makers don't use such uberhot stars the way we do (although her love interest, Tim, was pretty yummy). I liked Poppy's infernal cheerfulness, but also that we got to see her heart. She wasn't one sided or naive. (I especially hate the types of movies that show the eternally happy person as naive as though only bitter cynics have any kind of head on their shoulders). I relate to Poppy. She is making a conscious choice to be happy and let things go. I can appreciate that. Even though I sometimes fail at it, I try to be as happy as I possibly can. The reviewers talk a lot about character study and all the onion peeling of the movie, I just say I liked it and it was well worth the 10 bucks I spent to see it. (Although I will concede that at one point it did get a bit too wandery for me and I did start to wonder how long the movie was) One thing I did think was that I really wanted to find a trampoline class to take. I don't think we have those here.