The Happy-Go-Lucky trailer surprised me when I headed to one of the local art-house theaters to catch an afternoon showing of American Teen. There is a certain radiance to the trailer that reminded me of a previous film I had to catch in the art-house, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie.

Amelie was important in 2001. I was living in Colorado and the only theater showing the subtitled flick was the Aztec in Denver. The Aztec was cool enough to have one of the original posters displayed outside of the theater, displaying the film’s French title: Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain. I went with the girl I had a crush on at the time, and was blown away by the warm-and-fuzzy feeling I was left with when the credits began to crawl.

It sounds lame to be taken in by a French date movie by they guy who made Alien: Resurrection, but that little-film-that-could debuted in America on October 3rd, 2001 (at the Aspen Film Festival). Remember October 2001? With the different colored alerts, Anthrax in the mail, we were newborns in the early days of the new era of fear. Amelie was the first piece of pop culture that made me remember that things were going to be okay.

It looks like Happy-Go-Lucky is in the same vein.

Sally Hawkins (Layer Cake, Vera Drake) stars as Poppy, an irrepressibly free-spirited school teacher who brings an infectious laugh and an unsinkable sense of optimism to every situation she encounters, offering us a touching, truthful and deeply life-affirming exploration of one of the most mysterious and often the most elusive of all human qualities: happiness.

Poppy’s ability to maintain her perspective is tested as the story begins and her commuter bike is stolen. However, she enthusiastically signs up for driving lessons with Scott (Eddie Marsan), who turns out to be her nemesis – a fuming, uptight cynic. As the tension of their weekly lessons builds, Poppy encounters even more challenges to her positive state of mind: a fiery flamenco instructor, her bitter pregnant sister, a troubled homeless man and a young bully in her class, not to mention that she has also thrown out her back.

Happy-Go-Lucky is going to be one of the featured films at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and – if previous festivals are to be trusted – will make a splash.

Us normals are going to have to hang out around our local art-house on October 10th 2008 for its limited release, followed by an expanded release on October 17th.