I can’t get this out of my head. See, the thing no one seems to grasp about Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is her culpability. Every discussion of Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky describes her as impossibly cheerful, but unable to break through to the angry Scott (Eddie Marsdan). Roger Ebert thinks Poppy’s trying to “help” Scott. Richard von Busack writes, “Poppy learns that not everyone can be cheered up by a pert girl.”
Poppy knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s not nefarious. She’s not trying to torture Scott. Well, not exactly. But she is trying to seduce him. To win him over. She likely thinks her ebullience will benefit him. Shining a little Poppy in his life will make him happier. But she’s surely had enough experience with angry and damaged men to know that he will love her. And she wants that. She wants to exercize that power. She wants to flirt with the danger of it.
In the scene most often criticized in Happy-Go-Lucky, Poppy chats up a crazy homeless man and follows him to a secluded area. It’s tense and ominous and tonally different from the rest of the film. I don’t take this scene literally. It’s a metaphor for the dangerous situation Poppy is knowingly walking into with Scott.
I’ve been Poppy. I’ve been casually cruel with such disarming charm that my victims forgive and love me anyway. Oh, Poppy. I’ll forgive you too. Because you do sparkle so.