The first must-see film of the year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As always, Mike Leigh also in this delivers a film with a unique insight into everyday people. But unlike many other of his films, this is more light and easy in the tone and what I want to call a feel-good movie. The film is based on the character Poppy, and goes straight into her life. It may be strange to write this, but the movie actually has little content besides following her many strange incidents and funny episodes. But even if the movie misses a story that builds itself up and draws you into the action, it works just fine. Much thanks to the main role holder who is really created for the role of the freaky, fun and funny poppy. We also need such movie experiences.

Acclaimed English independent writer-director Mike Leigh has a great eye and ear for details. Here, he directs much talented Sally Hawkins.Leigh portrays some months in the life of main character Poppy (Hawkins). The viewer gets to follow her in her everyday life, working as teacher, spending time with her friends, taking flamenco classes and doing her weekly driving lesson. There are no large-scale events, just the drama and comedy of life around her. Leigh's achievement is the way he makes these things so interesting and engaging for the viewer. The way he and actor Sally Hawkins connects with each other in the director-actor relationship is also quite impressive.

This film sorely fails to capture what it sets out to do. The protagonist "Poppy" is not terribly witty or funny nor does she capture the Free Spirited demeanor director Mike Leigh tries so hard to depict. Poppy is more annoyingly and shallowly giddy throughout the film and her character is quite 'forced.' In the post film commentary, Leigh absurdly says that Poppy comparisons to iconic Hollywood free spirits like Holly Golightly are misinformed since the Poppy character is so much more complex and well-rounded. But Poppy doesn't exhibit a fraction of the CHARM or vulnerability that Holly does which is why generations of audiences have fallen in love with the Audrey Hepburn character. Leigh's simplistic attempts to heavy-handedly demonstrate Poppy's compassion for others also fall flat like when she encounters a schizoid homeless man in an abandoned factory setting. Sure she 'cares' and feels 'bad' for the guy just like she cares feels 'bad' for the driving instructor but nothing she does actually 'helps' either of them. I suppose she does help the angry, belligerent school child who's beating up his fellow class mates due to his dysfunctional family life but what teacher wouldn't intervene is a similar situation? And Poppy's love scene with the quiet, hunk 'social worker' also lacks chemistry and is rather contrived just like her personality. Sally Hawkins nuanced performance in the BBC production of Persuasion was borderline brilliant compared to this unconvincing character portrayal of a gal narcissist who is neither funny, dep nor particularly free spirited.

When this film came out my girlfriend said she wanted to see it because she'd heard good things. After much time waiting for her to be in the mood for it, I eventually queued it up when by myself and I am glad I did as she would have truly hated this film. The plot (as light as it is) is about a 30-year-old woman who is as cheerful and perky as the day is long. She hangs out with her friends, she meets a guy, she learns how to drive and in all these things we see her infectious sense of happiness. There isn't much more to this and I do not thing I have seen a film that depends so totally on whether or not you like the main character.I said she is infectious but then so are many diseases and to be honest I found Poppy to be as enjoyable. Her character is the type to speak to strangers, to constantly have a zany remark, to be the one making a spectacle of herself and so on. Of course her being the polar opposite of me didn't help, but I found nothing to make me question myself here and on the contrary I spent much of the film wondering if Polly isn't suffering from some sort of mental illness. The majority of the film sees Poppy in full-on zany mood, mostly in collaboration with others but occasionally contrasting her with a dull married couple and her driving instructor, who carries all of his anger with him all the time. When the film is letting Poppy just be herself I found it tiresome. As a character she says nothing real and everything is a little joke or witty episode. It is only the contrast where she comes out and I think there is really only one or two moments in the film where I felt a real person had come out of Poppy.The cast are mixed and not in a goo way. Hawkins got lots of praise of this performance but I thought it was terrible. In one or two scenes she lets the façade drop so we see her at her most real. I loved these moments but the downside of them was that we then know the rest is a façade and not her really. Her acting involves cheeky mockney dialogue and little else. Marsan is much better. His rage and anger is convincing and his performance works well next to the moments when Hawkins is not OTT cheerful. The supporting cast is OK but really it is Hawkins' film and this is something to keep in mind.Whether you like this film or not depends very much on liking Poppy. You may find her freewheeling color to be charmingly quirky but for me she used it as a barrier to any real discussion or humanity and she struck me as disingenuous throughout the film. The moments where she drops the wisecracks and zaniness and lets something like empathy or concern for others come through are great, but they are few and far between.