The mystery of Mike Leigh's characters: The Case of Poppy

I've been a Mike Leigh fan for years but his movies are not without their flaws. I like his slice of life style, emphasis on relationships, and character driven stories that are not afraid of being emotional. That is the main strength. The weakness? I would say that his characters sometimes come across as theatrical caricatures. In Secrets and Lies Cynthia is always blubbering, in Life is Sweet Nicola is always scowling etc. In this case Poppy is always smiling, laughing, and being goofy. I think it is obvious that we are suppose to admire her upbeat approach to life. Yet I am not so sure. The fact that I am not so sure is what makes his films fascinating all over again. In a Mike Leigh film you can count on witnessing the troubled characters versus the easy-breezy stable characters. In Another Year some viewers felt the stable couple were condescending to their wounded friends perhaps even smug. I disagreed with that although I could see how one can arrive at that conclusion. But with Poppy I have to say I found her ever jubilant behavior to be almost irreverent or disrespectful at times. It got old. It seemed even histrionic and self centered at times. And maybe that was the point. Her compassion towards the homeless man seemed dysfunctional to me actually. Was she brave in her decision to interact with him or was she playing with fire? When the homeless man keeps asking "you know? you know?" she would reply "yes". But what does she really know about being homeless or mentally ill? It seemed to be a very unwise style of compassion. Perhaps it was really morbid curiosity disguised as compassion. But ah...that must be where my cynicism kicks in right? Her approach to intervening with the bully at school? She gives him more attention. But what about the victims? The wounded troubled and angry souls need Poppy's optimistic healing and knowing ways! In Another Year the "knowing" ways of adjusted friends dealing with troubled ones seemed better than Poppy's rather Pollyanna style. Happy-Go-Lucky was hard for me to like but the emotional payoff at the end helped. I think Poppy was too one note for me. But it was a Mike Leigh film that got me thinking again and that it what I like about his movies.