There are plenty of princes waltzing around in Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, but they're not rescuing any damsels. In this grown-up fairy tale, two women help each other.
It's London, it's 1939, and Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is just being fired from yet another governess job. It looks as if her employment agency is finished with her forever, but with a jot of deception, she finds work at the home of the extremely daffy and fluffy Miss Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams).
Delysia is an American actress. When she meets Miss Pettigrew, she has one lover about to leave after breakfast, another on his way upstairs and a third waiting for her at the club.
Sleeping one's way to the top is quite complicated, but Delysia is determined to get the lead in a new production.
Miss Pettigrew's manners and firm advice in the too-many-men crisis lead Delysia to believe that Pettigrew is the new social secretary sent over by the employment agency.
She can't know that the meek and mousy Miss Pettigrew has no job, no home and not a single item of clothing other than what she's wearing. Miss Lafosse puts her new friend's poverty down to a bad gambling habit and spends one boyfriend's money getting Miss Pettigrew a makeover. She blossoms! It's all very Noel Coward.
As she learns to negotiate the glossy, selfish, money-centred world Delysia inhabits, Miss Pettigrew meets quite a cast of characters -- Phil (Tom Payne), the foppish son of a producer and one of Delysia Lafosse's conquests, Michael (Lee Pace), the musician who truly loves Delysia and even knows her real name, Nick (Mark Strong) a club owner and another of Delysia's lovers, the manipulative Edythe (the awe-inspiring Shirley Henderson, ethereal voice and all), a bitchy fashion expert and Edythe's much-older fiance Joe (Ciaran Hinds), a lingerie designer.
Miss Pettigrew moves among them, helping and sorting lives, offering advice on love and even finding romance herself.
This is a frothy little confection and a treat to look at, but mostly because of the performances from Adams and McDormand. Amy Adams is just delightful here. Ditto Frances McDormand, who manages to keep the delicate balance between drama and comedy through her performance.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a madcap story about true love, ambition and identity set against a background of impending war.
It's based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, and it's quick, witty and charming throughout.
You'll forget it the moment you leave the theatre, but for 90 minutes of delicious escapism, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is just the ticket.
(This film is rated PG)
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