Marni's Critical Defense Article

Here's the link to a review of Happy-Go-Lucky which is playing at the Little Theater on Oakland: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/movies/10happ.html

Manhola Dargis gives Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” a positive review, and keeps the reader convinced by including the specific reasons why it isn’t perfect and how it’s not always consistent. As Dargis goes through the particulars of “Happy-Go-Lucky,” he gives a positive and a negative aspect to the film saying, “much depends on whether you wear rose-colored specs.” The review is so back-and-forth about the movie, that I’m almost unsure that Dargis liked it, but by the last two paragraphs, it’s settled. Dargis is almost warning the audience that there are some optimistic and bubbly characters and situations that could get annoying, but in the end, everybody is struggling with the reality of happiness and not just floating along untouched.
The first “but” that made me think Dargis liked the film came at the end of the second paragraph with an actual “but”: “Nobody mounts a soapbox and whistles, “The Internationale” in Happy-Go-Lucky, but the film is so tuned to the pulse of communal life, to the rhythms of how people work, play and struggle together, it captures the larger picture along with the smaller.” Dargis mainly seems thrown by Leigh, who seems to only have written darker and more moody films in the past, but Happy-Go-Lucky has it’s moments and the characters are tested enough and fail enough that Dargis is reassured.