Miss Pettigrew

When I first saw the trailer for Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, I was a little off put, it looked like a movie that I was either going like a lot or really dislike and feel like it was a waste of time. So I saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day this morning and I really liked it a lot. Miss Pettigrew is a feel good light hearted romantic comedy, one that we need more of these days. It had bright colors, a fun story, and enchanting actors. Frances McDormand was so brilliant and a lot of fun to watch, she's got such a presence on the silver screen and has still got that magical touch. Amy Adams was just adorable, I really am starting to love her more and more in each movie I see her in, she's just so cute in her role as Delysia. The weird thing is, is that her character could have been such a tramp, but she made it into someone so cute and likable that her and Miss Pettigrew into a great on screen friendship.

Miss Pettigrew is a woman in the 1930's who has gone through so much, she's getting fired from one job to the next. But when she sneaks into being a "social secretary" for Delysia Lafosse, a sexy young vixen who is dating three guys at the same time. But she just wants to have the lead role in the local play and become a huge actress, but it's hard balancing these boys, but with Miss Pettigrew, she realizes that she might just be in love with a great man. Miss Pettigrew in the mean time catches the eye of a handsome rich man, Joe, who may just change her life.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a charming film and is one of the better films of 2008. I know that it's a bit predictable and it's a chick flick, but it's just a fun movie that I'm sure you'll like. It doesn't try too hard and the actors looked like they had such a great time making this movie. I would recommend Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, it's worth the watch. It's a nice romantic comedy that's original, clean, and fun. It brought me back to the classic movies of the 1950's where they were just fun entertainment, the colors and the feel of movie was just enchanting.

8/10

This reminded me of something that Irene Dunne or Norma Shearer would have starred in as Delysia, with Cary Grant playing the love interest, Michael. The cast was excellent. Frances McDormand in the title role was outstanding. Ciaran Hinds (Julius Ceaser from HBO's "Rome") was great. The screenplay was first-rate. The cinematography was perfect, capturing pre-WWII London flawlessly.

What really made the movie standout was Amy Adams as Delysia. She truly shined in her role. She has quickly become among the top tier female actors in Hollywood. She has great acting range in both comic and dramatic roles, and she can sing. She's got it all. Her love interest in the film, Lee Pace, was also very good. They had the type of chemistry that worked so well in the best 1930's screwball comedies with Cary Grant & Irene Dunne, among others.

This is a very good movie, well directed, written, & acted. I would recommend this movie to anyone in the mood for a good romantic comedy.

If you're looking for a compelling, daring, high brow documentary then this is not the one for you. However, if you're interested in seeing good acting, excellent art direction, and fun, whimsical characters then you won't be disappointed. Francis McDormand gives an excellent performance as the lead character. This role plays to her strengths - her presence, facial expressions and perfect timing. Amy Adams stretches a bit to deliver a good performance. She still managed to make her portrayal of the character believable despite her acting limitations. By far the best performance was that of Shirley Henderson as Edythe. Henderson takes the character and fully embraces it, exploiting the opportunity without going over the top. The story line while familiar, is adapted well enough to be make it a refreshing and witty period film without being cliché or taking itself too seriously. Overall the movie was very well done and one of the best refreshingly familiar feel-good films in recent memory.

A lot of movie going these days, at least for me, is having seen the best a film has to offer in the television clips/ads. Compare the feeling to being a fish who gets caught on the hook, is reeled in,and quickly finds out the worm wasn't worth the misery of being captured. In a refreshing turn of fate, this was an exception. I took the bait and was glad I did. It offered up a plush background that quickly brought this viewer in to share the experience with the actors. Amy Adams and Frances McDormand created a complex relationship and I quickly felt empathy with their characters. I want to give special notice to Ciaran HInds as Joe Blumfield. He was magnetically appealing. His quiet reserve as Joe, ruggedly handsome,worldly wise, and debonair, is rarely seen in male roles. Let's have more of this! (Oops, I guess you might have figured me for a guy by my review name, papacorn, but I'm solidly female.) I was truly entertained and even enjoyed the music which is of a type I never particularly liked before. I don't think it's meant for children and I'd definitely recommend parental discretion as suggested by the rating.

This quirky romance is set in London right before the outbreak of World War II. There are a few times in the movie where that context is significant, but they are very few and are of great portent, but not regarding the plot. Frances McDormand stars as Miss Pettigrew and when the story opens, she has just been fired from the position as a servant of a wealthy lady. With no assets, she goes to a soup kitchen for a free meal and when she is about to eat it, she is bumped, and it falls on the ground. Acquiring her last job through an agency, she goes there, only to be told that with her record, she is now considered unemployable. Desperate, Miss Pettigrew learns that another employee of the agency is scheduled to go to a job for an actress and intercepts the communication so that the actress believes that Miss Pettigrew was sent by the agency. Amy Adams plays the glamorous and high-society singer actress Delysia Lafosse, and when Miss Pettigrew arrives, the apartment is in a state of chaos, Lafosse needs to get the man in her bed dressed and out of the apartment before another man in her life arrives. Lafosse is portrayed as a superficial airhead, stringing several men along while she determines which one of best suited to advance her career. However, as the film progresses, we learn that she is much more than that. Clearly a child of the Depression, Lafosse is for the first time somebody, rather than just another woman struggling to survive. This movie is meant to be a comedy romance, yet the humor is often lost due to the overplayed dingbat features of Lafosse and the self-serving wickedness of other women. The romance part works much better, particularly at the end, where everything turns out to be about love. Your emotional strings are pulled when you think that Miss Pettigrew is suddenly tossed back where she was in the beginning, alone in a terminal with no hope. Suddenly, things change. Although this is clearly a chick-flick, guys can relate to it as well. My favorite parts of the movie are the references to the potential for war between Britain and Germany. There are not many but make up for it in their ominous nature. For example, there is a scene where a formation of heavy British bombers fly overhead. Anyone with knowledge of what happened during the Second World War will recognize it for the powerful harbinger of their future reality.