Mike Leigh slice-of-life film set in Camden, London. The protagonist, Poppy, is the happy go lucky character of the title, we see her swanning about on a bike, all very Richard Lester 1960s-style. She's a bit like Catherine Tate's 'What AM I like?!?' persona, finding her own antics very funny and so on. But the film rubbed me up the wrong way from the start, because the surly strangers she encounters were so exaggeratedly unfriendly, I felt it a bit contrived to get us on her side and feel sorry for her.
Grumpily I imagined a Hostel type scenario for her, but even then, her tender white skin prodded by a sharp instrument in a dank basement, she's probably go "Ooh, hello Mr Sythe! I guess you're annoyed I haven't used you to cut the lawn lately! I must say, this is different to your Holiday Inn experience!"
What's more, her bigoted driving instructor is a white, working class bloke who's a Christian extremist and conspiracy theorist - the sort of nutter who ticks all the boxes, the kind you can ridicule with impunity these days. It was all too easy, he was such a stereotype. When Poppy goes all wise and asks, "Are you an only child, Scott?" or "Were you bullied at school, Scott?" it's as if we're meant to applaud her intuition, when in fact that's a very crass thing to say to someone. Heaven knows what working- class champion and only child Julie Burchill would make of it! That said, I'm a little surprised by the support Scott generates on this site.
Leigh has form when it comes to patronising the working classes, in a way I felt this was the case here. Excellent acting by the lead, though my admiration was mixed with ambivalence when I realised from the bonus features that she - and most of them - are far posher than the people they portray. Overall I thought this was a bit lefty Guardian for me. Naturally, every black person in this film is salt of the earth. Fair enough, but it all seemed a bit doctrinaire and heavy handed, going against the supposedly random, slice-of-life approach.
Grumpily I imagined a Hostel type scenario for her, but even then, her tender white skin prodded by a sharp instrument in a dank basement, she's probably go "Ooh, hello Mr Sythe! I guess you're annoyed I haven't used you to cut the lawn lately! I must say, this is different to your Holiday Inn experience!"
What's more, her bigoted driving instructor is a white, working class bloke who's a Christian extremist and conspiracy theorist - the sort of nutter who ticks all the boxes, the kind you can ridicule with impunity these days. It was all too easy, he was such a stereotype. When Poppy goes all wise and asks, "Are you an only child, Scott?" or "Were you bullied at school, Scott?" it's as if we're meant to applaud her intuition, when in fact that's a very crass thing to say to someone. Heaven knows what working- class champion and only child Julie Burchill would make of it! That said, I'm a little surprised by the support Scott generates on this site.
Leigh has form when it comes to patronising the working classes, in a way I felt this was the case here. Excellent acting by the lead, though my admiration was mixed with ambivalence when I realised from the bonus features that she - and most of them - are far posher than the people they portray. Overall I thought this was a bit lefty Guardian for me. Naturally, every black person in this film is salt of the earth. Fair enough, but it all seemed a bit doctrinaire and heavy handed, going against the supposedly random, slice-of-life approach.