If you have seen the TV adaptations of Sarah Waters's "Tipping the Velvet" or "Fingersmith", you have seen Sally Hawkins. In TTV, she is the maid Blake, a minor character who plays a pivotal role in the protagonist's future. In "Fingersmith", she is the narrator Susan Trinder, the illiterate pick-pocket whose own fate will be revealed in the twisted plot. In the behind-the-scene footage of "Fingersmith", Hawkins cheerfully described the scene she was about to play and enthusiastically discussed it with Waters. I was surprised that off stage she could be so relaxed, so exuberant.
Her exuberance must have been noticed by others, for that's a perfect match for the character Poppy in Mike Leigh's new movie "Happy-Go-Lucky" and Hawkins won the best actress in Berlin Film Festival playing this role.
Leigh is a unique British filmmaker. While most of his British colleagues are busy making historical dramas or draw their inspirations from 19 century novels and Shakespeare plays, Leigh rarely makes any historical drama and always writes and directs his films. To say he "wrote" his films would be misleading because he never fully scripted his characters, but asked his actors to improvise the lines. It demanded a lot from the actors, but a good Mike Leigh scene is always edgy and spontaneous.
Unlike most of Leigh's movies, "Happy-Go-Lucky" seems lighthearted and sunny (versus his previous work "Vera Drake"). We still see Leigh's trademark social commentary in it, but this time, he seems to be more optimistic and in better mood. (There is also a flamenco lesson you will never forget.) Who knows? Maybe he got infected by Hawkins's exuberance too!
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