This one crept up on me - I've only just found out that it's being released this week. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen it yet?

I'm not quite sure whether or not to be surprised that the Vue in Lancaster has apparrently chosen not to include Happy-Go-Lucky in its roster for this week. I guess I'll have to wait for the local arthouse to show it sometime in November.

I watched it tonight. I really enjoyed it - it's a film like Marmite. The main character is so lovable/annoying depending on your point of view. What you think of her is going to decide what you think of the film. Fortunately, she brought a big smile to my face so I was hooked from the start.

Slight spoiling may follow:

A strange one this, for me. I enjoyed it and despite initial reservations warmed to the main character and her group of friends. Too much of it, though, just didn't ring true. That went from the clubbing scene at the start, to most of the background and supporting characters, who just seemed like clear ciphers for the points or ideas that Mike Leigh was trying to make; from the ignorant book shop assistant to her lifeless sister in the suburbs.

Even a lot of the otherwise convincing driving instructor character and Poppy’s responses to him seemed either too heavy handed or just too unlikely: his barely under the surface racism and her continuing with lessons after he’d turned up outside their flat.

Probably the thing that jarred for me a bit more was the encounter with the rambling tramp - it was layering on the whole 'she's so irrepressible and big-hearted she'll go out of her way to talk to anyone' schtick.

But it was a nice, warm and humane film about friendship I though, even if Leigh almost always puts in one crass caricature per picture. And this one's was the pregnant sister in Essex.