The main character is a 30-year-old bachelorette, Pauline "Poppy" Cross (Sally Hawkins), who shares a London flat with her best friend Zoe, a fellow teacher. The film follows the misadventures of the happy-go-lucky teacher as she attempts to get a driver's license and deal with the daily issues of her life and her teaching career.
Tropes associated with this work:
- An Aesop: Have fun and enjoy life. But know that you can't necessarily make everyone else happy.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Scott's big rant at the end contains one, although it's portrayed as more sad than romantic.
- Arc Words: "Yknow?" Poppy certainly seems to.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Scott accuses Poppy of this, when she says "He's nice!" about a male pedestrian.
- Blatant Lies: When Poppy confronts Scott after having seen him lingering outside near her apartment, he claims he was in Steveage the entire day visiting his mother, a lie he continues holding onto even after it's clear that Poppy doesn't believe him (especially since he mentions the exact car she and her friends were driving at one point, a detail Poppy is polite enough not to point out).
- Break the Cutie: Openly defied: Poppy refuses to lose her sunny disposition. See For Happiness below.
- Brutal Honesty: Suzy is never afraid to speak her mind and call people out directly on their insecurities, seen most egregiously when she, Zoe, and Poppy are visiting Poppy's sister Helen.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Poppy. She is upbeat when her bike is stolen, because she always wanted to get a driving licence. She also stuffs chicken fillets in her bra, because: "I like the way they make me feel. Like a natural woman." When drunk she is even more random than usual.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Scott when he breaks down.
- Comedic Spanking: When one of Poppy's friends pats her on the bottom with a slipper, Poppy says "that's nice, do it again!".
- Companion Cube: Poppy is disappointed she never got to say goodbye to her stolen bike.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Scott the driving instructor. 666! Pyramids! En-Ra-Ha!
- Cool Teacher: Poppy, who teaches her kids about migratory birds by having them all make bird masks out of brown paper bags and running around squawking. This pays off later, when a badly-behaved kid trusts her enough to open up to her about what's really bothering him, rather than simply seeing her as an enemy.
- Copycat Mockery: One of Poppy's fellow teachers Tash imitates her own aunt, giving her the Spanish Inquisition.Tash (in her aunt's voice): Tash, you got a boyfriend? Are you getting married soon? Why don't you give your mum another grandchild?
- Establishing Character Moment: Poppy's optimistic personality is outlined pretty straight and narrow in the first scene when she makes her visit into the library. She chats up the store clerk constantly and only gets cold answers in response, which doesn't even faze her. Then she walks out and sees her bike has been stolen. But her only immediate thoughts are that she never got to say goodbye to it, and that at least now she has an excuse to take up driving lessons.
- Foil: Scott, to Poppy. Both of them are teachers, of a sort, who fall on opposite ends of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. We see how Poppy is well-liked by her students, surrounded by people she cares about, and generally very happy in her life, while Scott is a bitter, lonely man whose students seem to hate him.
- For Happiness: Poppy just wants everyone to be happy. But, as Zoe says in the end, "You can't make everyone happy!" - "There's no harm in trying, though, is there? Bring a smile to the world."
- Friend to All Children: The film very clearly establishes that Poppy and Zoe are very much well-liked by their students. Poppy in particular observes one of her students bullying another, and rather than getting angry with him, recognizes that he's probably having a difficult home life and brings in a social worker to help him open up.
- Good Samaritan: Poppy, especially in her encounter with the homeless guy whom she offers help and listens to.
- Handshake Refusal: Scott does not shake Poppy's hand when she offers it with her huge smile; he briskly turns away and heads towards the car, leaving her cheerfully saying that she washed her hands for the occasion. He also refuses to shake Tim's hand; Poppy cheerfully quips "you can't win 'em all".
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Poppy and Zoe. The even sleep in the same bed. And like to cuddle. See Mistaken for Gay below.
- It's All About Me: Scott accuses Poppy of being like this. Ironically, when he accuses her of knowing how to drive and only wanting to take driving lessons so she can flirt with him and drive him crazy, he comes off as this.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The whole film is something of a deconstruction - Poppy doesn't realise the way her behaviour can look flirtatious to an uptight, frustrated older man, while he doesn't realise she's a real person and not his rescuing Blithe Spirit. Following their final confrontation, she seems subdued and thoughtful, implying she is mulling over the consequences Scott threw at her, which isn't a trait of Manic Pixie Dream Girls.
- Mistaken for Gay: Poppy jokes to Scott that she and Zoe are partners; unfortunately Scott has No Sense of Humour and Poppy doesn't bother to correct him.
- Noble Profession: Poppy and her flatmate Zoe are shown as very capable primary school teachers. Especially Poppy lets her pupils have lots of fun in her lessons.
- Never My Fault: For all Scott's talk of responsibility in driving, he never takes responsibility for his own actions. For example, in an early scene he complains about a pupil swearing at him and running off, but it never seems to occur to him that he might have provoked the pupil... and given his racist complaints about the guy being "too street", this seems very likely. At the end, Poppy specifically points this tendency out to him.
- No Sense of Humor: Scott. Poppy's younger sister (although she behaves like an older sister) Helen as well.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Scott, the closest thing the movie has to a villain, is extremely racist and misogynistic.
- The Pollyanna: Poppy, who doesn't let anything bother her. Even after her final confrontation with Scott, in the movie's epilogue we see that she's bounced right back to her usual happy self.
- The Power of Love: Sally Hawkins said
Love is what the movie is all about.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scott tries to give one to Poppy at the climax of the movie, although he ends up saying a lot more about himself than he does about her.
- Satellite Love Interest: Poppy's boyfriend is probably the least interesting person in the film.
- Serious Business: According to Scott, you can't have fun when learning driving a car
- Sexual Karma: Poppy and Tim seem to have pretty mutually-fulfilling sex, while Scott - the closest thing the movie has to a villain - seems to be a deeply lonely, resentful man.
- Slice of Life: It's a movie all about day-to-day life and how we react it.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Poppy is on the one end, Scott on the other. The movie observes what happens when they interact.
Word of God states the movie leans more towards the idealistic side. Mike Leigh says the movie is "anti-miserablist". - Stalker with a Crush: Implied. While returning from visiting Helen, Poppy notices Scott hanging around near her apartment. When she greets him, he bolts, and later denies having ever been there.
- Wicked Stepfather: Poppy's student who keeps getting into fights eventually admits that his mum's boyfriend hits him.
- You're Just Jealous: says Suzy when Helen feels threatened by Poppy just being happy without being worried about having a husband, house or life insurance.
