There's a bit going on in this one. I didn't find it especially uplifting, to be honest - the social realist style in which it was filmed pretty much precludes any such response from me. Also, the preachiness irritated me a bit (ie, the 'be like free-spirited, endlessly cheerful Poppy, and not like her uptight bourgeois sister and wimpy husband or her racist, paranoid, obsessive driving instructor Scott - a pair of straw (wo)men, really)...so, while it has a pleasing whimsy, actually I don't think I really much liked Happy-Go-Lucky.
Just as a by-the-by, if I were writing an essay about this film for uni (and less wary of obvious 'ins' than I actually would be), the starting point would definitely be the scene near the start where Poppy and her friends are dancing in the club to "Common People"...
(w/ Kai and Wei, a pair of old-school film-going buddies)
