Happy-Go-Lucky
Miramax Films | Release Date: October 10, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I thought "Topsy-Turvy" was perfection, a spirited evocation of the partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan, plus a blithely definitive depiction of the artistic process. Happy-Go-Lucky is perfection too, assuming you go along with its leisurely pace, which I did quite happily. Read full review
100
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in Happy-Go-Lucky. This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The personal triumphs in Happy-Go-Lucky may be small-scale but its embrace is all-encompassing. It's a wonderfully humane movie. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
As refreshing as it is to find a movie that leaves you smiling, it's something much rarer to discover a film that makes you think about what a commitment to happiness really means. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Won't break your heart -- it will make it soar. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is Mike Leigh's funniest film since "Life Is Sweet" (1991). Of course he hasn't ever made a completely funny film, and Happy-Go-Lucky has scenes that are not funny, not at all. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
British director Mike Leigh has made the first great comedy for our new depression. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The London universe Leigh creates (employing his trademark improv techniques to unite his ensemble, many of whom make their film debuts) isn't so much a reality as a hope, and an invitation to find joy and grace in everyday moments. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Mr. Leigh has never been an artist for whom happy (word or idea) has been an easy fit. Life is sweet, as the title of another of his films puts it with a heart-swelling yes, but it’s also an eternal fight against doom and gloom, the soul-crushing no. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Leigh pushes the story in a more interesting direction, asking whether people find happiness or simply will it on themselves. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
No list of the year's best performances should be made without her (Sally Hawkins). Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It is that rare film that is equal parts entertaining, life-affirming and thought-provoking. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
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. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineNathan Southern
The picture as a whole benefits not merely from the excellent performances, but from its warm emotional core and its infectious love of people, topped off by a mature (though not jaded) sobriety about human limitations that thoroughly validates everything preceding it. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Stays with you like great movies tend to do. It asks you to examine the inner mechanisms of human beings, cheerful and miserable alike. It's not about looking at a glass half empty or a glass half full. It's about drinking down what's in that glass and letting it fill your soul. Read full review
88
PremiereJenni Miller
Sally Hawkins offers an Oscar-worthy performance as Poppy, the funny, kind-hearted, and mischievous protagonist. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Happy-Go-Lucky isn't one of Leigh's epic social canvases like "Secrets & Lies" or even "Topsy-Turvy"; rather, it's an edgy character study whose message only gradually emerges. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
There’s something of the harlequin in Leigh’s conception of this bright, manic young woman. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Typically, Leigh withholds his own judgment as to whether Hawkins is a delight or a terror. But he does create a noticeable tension between the audience's expectations and the way the story plays out. Read full review
80
NPRBob Mondello
So relentlessly upbeat that it won't take long before you're wondering just how the director plans to wipe the smile off her face. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
As is always the case with Leigh's protagonists, Poppy does not fit into a schematic log line, she simply is. She exists with an intensity that few other filmmakers' characters can manage because of the singular way Leigh creates his people. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Leigh has been giving actors their tongues for decades, and of all his films, Happy-Go-Lucky is the easiest, the least labored. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
While any or all of the events related during the course of the film might seem to form the backbone of an unendurably boring motion picture, everything comes alive because of Poppy. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
The key to enjoying the film is warming up to the heroine, Poppy. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
It's a powerful argument for optimism. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
As surprising as it is delicious with an indelible performance by new star Sally Hawkins. Read full review
70
VarietyAlissa Simon
Mike Leigh's mellowest work yet, and his most purely entertaining. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The movie is not an argument for chaos; it's an argument for making one's way through life with a relaxed will and an open heart. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
At the very least, the spectacle of Poppy's devotion and desire, not to mention her all-around sunny disposish, left this viewer feeling unaccountably happy--at least for the moment. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
The results are unique in the contemporary cinema -- behavioral honesty and intensity raised to a flash point. If this be comedy, it is so only in the nominal sense that no one dies at the end of the picture. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
While it's being sold as "an effervescent comedy," Happy-Go-Lucky is nothing of the sort. It's rather grim, the laughs are few. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Is it possible to enjoy the company of the world's most irritating woman? Mike Leigh's surprisingly sunny dramedy makes a pretty good case that, in fact, it is. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
The trouble is that the movie in which Poppy does, in fact, exist never quite rises to her level. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
That's the film's problem: Leigh's creation is fixed and unchangeable, admirably optimistic as a person but completely unengaging as a movie character. Read full review
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