happy happy

I just came back from the movie theater in our neighborhood, just a couple of blocks away. I’d never gone to the movies by myself but I’m glad I did, and I’m especially glad I did so for the movie “Happy-Go-Lucky”. There are a couple of reasons, really. First, it was really nice, after spending several days with my family, to do something entirely for and by myself – especially since it consisted in seeing a film about making one’s own fun and happiness in this life. Second, the main character in this film, Poppy Cross, would have annoyed the crap out of anyone whom I could have dragged along.

Poppy even annoyed me at first -- which is saying something, considering how much I liked her from the movie’s trailer. Played by Sally Hawkins, she’s an unlikely heroine for a film: she’s all nervous laughter, zero attention span, kitschy wardrobe and constant wisecracks. You begin to appreciate her wiry, unconventional beauty only when she occasionally holds still. Poppy can find a silver lining where other people would never think to look for one, and her capacity for empathy puts others to shame. She’s no insipid Pollyanna, though: she gets drunk, makes fun of people who have it coming, and sometimes underestimates the extent to which her actions affect others.

Irritating qualities aside, she’s kind of my hero. Her undaunted good humor, her unflagging interest in others and her unwavering determination to seek out the best in people often make her the brunt of awkward encounters. But thanks to her general desire to engage with the world surrounding her, she doggedly challenges the negativity and torpor that surround her on all sides – all the while flatly refusing to take herself, or anyone, too seriously.

Everywhere, Poppy watches violence, anger, resentment, fear and disappointment become the filters through which others interact with the world and with one another. Meanwhile, people keep suggesting that she become an adult by “taking responsibility”. This movie reassured me that someone other than me is out there asking an important question: have we really reached a point at which the conscious cultivation of happiness is regarded as a less wise and serious approach to life than the suppression of one’s innate anger and cynicism? I think what I liked so much about this film, more than Poppy herself, is its suggestion that happiness is a responsibility, too.