For the longest time I had been thinking about doing some sort of an all-encompassing “Interpretation vs. Intention” article, but after seeing Happy-Go-Lucky I figured a case-by-case basis may be the best way to approach it since I didn’t really have a hefty amount of titles to pull from. At least none that really grabbed my attention in any outstanding way.
However, the one film the recently sticks out in my mind when it comes to the idea of an audience’s interpretation deviating from a filmmaker’s intention is There Will be Blood. A film I still don’t believe anyone outside of Paul Thomas Anderson truly understands as I pointed out almost a year ago even though so many critics lauded it for one reason or another (primarily because I believe none of them wanted to admit they fully didn’t know what was going on). I began thinking Happy-Go-Lucky could be the next film to raise my eyebrows and perhaps polarize audiences when Jeffrey Wells called Sally Hawkins‘s character an emotional fascist and said he found the film to be oppressive while Kris Tapley responded saying “there’s something to the ‘oppressive’ comment because Poppy will no doubt be a character that grates on the nerves of plenty of viewers. But I found charms here and there and, with a second viewing, I think I might settle into it more.”
Traversing the Internet I began to realize there was a common thread. Many found Hawkins’s character, Poppy, to be grating in the early going and then settled into the character as she began to experience a group of tough situations. Poppy is a woman that sees the brighter side of things. Early on her bike is stolen and instead of getting upset she says, “I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye,” and uses the opportunity to take up driving lessons. She always has a smile on her face and in another scene in a bookstore tries to make small talk with an unresponsive clerk and then takes a couple stabs at cheering him up only to be rebuffed time and again. It is this second instance that caused Jeff Wells to say:
I hate people who ask me if I’m happy because, of course, they’re not really asking me that. They’re saying they’ve observed my behavior, examined my vibe and decided that I just don’t have the right peppy-happy attitude, and that I need to adjust it right away so that it pleases them.
Wells is perfectly within his right to feel this way, but the fact he goes on to say “the last 15 to 20 minutes contain the best stuff in the film” makes me believe there is more at work here than he has considered. Especially when he says, “I thoroughly respect Hawkins for her performance in this section. She handles her scenes with quiet maturity and resigned grace.” Hmmmmm… So the happy-go-lucky Poppy grated on him, but when she was having to deal with what amounts to a psychotic driving instructor there wasn’t as much of an issue… Interesting.
With so little at stake in the narrative, it’s slightly difficult to gauge what Leigh, who has long been one of Britain’s most socially conscious filmmakers, is trying to say with this.
The comment took me back to Peter Sciretta’s review at Slash Film describing the film as “a character study,” which I don’t necessarily agree with, at least not the character he is talking about. Sciretta says:
If you’re looking for a story, there isn’t much of one. The film is purely about Poppy, and how the world reacts to her quirky upbeat attitude. Sally Hawkins delivers one hell of a performance, which you might only begin to realize late into the film when Poppy is forced to get serious. Happy-Go-Lucky is fun and endearing, but the character might be too in-your-face for easily annoyed viewers.
I really don’t think anyone is hitting on what this film actually is and Lodge even admitted he wasn’t quite sure what Leigh was trying to say with the film. Kim Voynar at Cinematical got the closest to the intentions of the film when she said:
While Hawkins is always at the forefront, it’s often the people around Poppy who drive the film’s flow and dramatic tension, as if Leigh intended Poppy to be a catalyst to explore both the reactions of others when faced with relentless optimism, and Poppy’s own response when faced with tense or uncomfortable situations.
This is getting closer to the point.
Despite the entire film being built around her, Poppy has no problem or desire that the narrative is required to resolve; she ends the film no different a woman than she began.
Therefore, if she ends the film no different than she was at the beginning what exactly is happening? How come in all of these reviews she begins this grating woman none of these critics particularly find agreeable (annoying in many cases), but even the one calling her an “emotional fascist” can find pleasure in the final 15-20 minutes in which she “is forced to get serious.”
I am not saying I am right in this instance, this is only my interpretation, but as I was watching I got the sense
And how about Lodge’s statements regarding the abandoning of the abused child storyline and the sisterly advice to more-or-less “grow up” angle? Well, if this film is in fact an attempt to target the audience rather than service the characters in the story neither of those plotlines matters one bit. Especially considering neither one of them would service the story any more than they already had. By the way, if Leigh was “fearful of breaking his film’s ingratiating spell,” as Lodge said, he would have had Poppy and the “cute social worker” break up and just tossed the entire mess into the cliché pile.
On top of it all, Poppy isn’t some flout about nitwit that laughs and smiles at everything. When confronted with racism, a schoolyard bully and a homeless man, there may be moments when she may act a bit naively, but she always finds her bearings and reacts accordingly, all the while the audience is going along with her. Even if you aren’t ready to be friends with Poppy or as a review at The Playlist said, on the verge of “[dropping] an axe into someone’s face,” no one wants actual harm (imagined harm maybe) to come to such a nice person no matter how annoying they may be. And by the end of the film you are happy she came out unscathed. At least I was, and I even found some hope when Poppy’s friend Zoe tells her, “You can’t make everyone happy” and she replies, “There’s no harm in trying is there?”
As much as Poppy may want to change the folks she encounters inside the film she ultimately ends up changing the people watching. At least that’s how I see it based on what I saw and what I have read.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I really liked this film and I am looking forward to interviewing Leigh and Hawkins as they are both coming to Seattle for a PA tour. Perhaps I will come off as a giant moron when I bring up my theory. Who knows? But I also expect to get a smile when I tell both of them I believe this film should easily be a candidate for Best Actress, Director, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay and even Picture. But hey, that’s just me, a self-described cynic that truly loved this film.
Happy-Go-Lucky hits limited theaters on October 10. For more information click here.
