Phone home

Mike Leigh’s film Happy-go-Lucky has been doing well, and Sally Hawkins who plays the lead won a Golden Globe for her performance.
We liked it much less than the critics appeared to, including the excellent Philip French. (French reviews it in the Observer; while looking for this I came across a different view from Kevin Maher in the Times).
The action is built around close observation of Poppy, a thirty year old primary school teacher living in London.
As I watched, something felt not quite right. About half way through I realized what it was: Poppy was not using a mobile phone. She did use it but only very occasionally and more towards the end. I found myself thinking all the time: where is your phone ….? why don’t you text them ….? why is nobody calling you …?