The Visitor, Happy-Go-Lucky

McCarthy´s film delves into the life of someone like this, and uses some outside forces to augment it. It´s some years after Walter Vale´s wife has passed away; he teaches a single class at a Connecticut university, using the rest of his time to work on his book. “What´s your book about?” people ask him, a question he isn´t entirely comfortable answering. He couldn´t be less interested in students; upon receiving a late paper, he rejects it outright, without caring to hear the “personal issues” that delayed it.

Poppy doesn´t use happiness as a cover or defense mechanism; no, she´s just really, really happy and hopeful and pleasant, almost to the point of derangement. The proper comparison, I think, would be to The Simpsons’ Ned Flanders, minus the religious aspect. With a character like this, there´s a thin line between a lovable bundle of joy and a mental patient, and it´s a line Happy-Go-Lucky frequently dances around. I only fault Leigh for not exploring the character further; the film is character study, but he´s already made his mind up about Poppy, elevating her to exalted status, recommending we all be more like her. He makes the mistake of assuming viewers will see her in a similar light (and to be fair, most critics have). I´m sorry, but she just seems too damn crazy to me.

In typical Leigh fashion, there isn´t much of a plot here – events seem to unfold naturally as we experience a few days or weeks in the life of Poppy: her days as a teacher with young students, her weekends with her friends at clubs, flamenco lessons, driving lessons, a trip to the doctor or to visit her younger sister. Throughout, Poppy is wide-eyed and enigmatic, with a “gosh!” when her bike is stolen or a “gee, golly!” when the chiropractor snaps her back into place. I´ve never met anyone like this, nor would I want to.

If Poppy is the anti-Taxi Driver, then she´s equally matched by her driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan), Happy-Go-Lucky´s version of Travis Bickle. Intense and angry, he´s the very definition of road rage: someone who shouldn´t be allowed to get in a vehicle, much less teach others how to drive. Poppy and Scott are two clashing forces that form an unlikely heart to the film. Marsan is terrific, and I mostly sided with him in the film´s climatic scene, even though the film went in the opposite direction.