Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

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  February 1, 2010

  binky013

  There is only one reason to see this, ah, happy little movie: the growth of the relationship between Frances McDormand and Ciarán Hinds. That part of the movie is beautifully done. The rest of it, however, is a bit of a wash. For McDormand and Hinds, this is a wonderful love ...( read more)story that rings very true. For all the rest of it, well, I guess it's a kind of fluffy window dressing. It's as if there are two movies being shown at the same time.

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  November 23, 2009

  AgentLexi2132

  ''Not everything comes along just when we want it. There are times when decisions just have to be made, or you certainly will miss out.''
  
  Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment ...( read more)catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.
  
  Amy Adams; Delysia Lafosse
  
  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a lovely, quaint film breathing life into the romantic comedy genre. The film shows the benefit of submerging to literature for inspiration and it develops its characters well because of it. Miss Pettigrew and Delysia both possess the characteristics the other lacks and compliment themselves, throughout the entire 90 minute period. Miss Pettigrew effortlessly slides along it's run time, the film utilizes its running length well. It doesn't have to tack any extras on and finishes succinctly on a positive note.
  Jazzed up with an all star cast to boot; Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciarán Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Lee Pace, Mark Strong, and Tom Payne.
  
  The story (all of which takes place in a single day and the following night) follows Miss Pettigrew, a presumably troubled yet effective nanny, as she assists a young actress, Delysia, choose which of the three men she is seeing to marry. I felt compelled to tell you the story because it was difficult for me to follow. Fortunately, this wasn't because the film was convoluted, but it moved quickly. The opening sequence when two of the three men are shown is nearly impossible to follow until one realizes Delysia's promiscuity. This is representative of the film's greatest strength: it's simply fun to watch. One generally doesn't know what will happen next or how poverty-stricken Miss Pettigrew will react in the various wealthy-class social gatherings to which Delysia leads her. As odd as it sounds, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a romantic comedy period piece, a commonly used strategy but a rarely effective one. In most films which attempt this, the primary character finds a love interest and the supportive friend, eventually finds romance as well. The story focuses on the primary romantic interest in the friend instead of the titular character. So, we really hope Miss Pettigrew finds someone and when she does, we feel even more satisfied. She not only helps Delysia, but herself too. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day can easily be interpreted as a lesson on the virtues of giving, or placing others' needs ahead of one's own gains.
  
  ''I am not an expert on love, I am an expert on the lack of love, Delysia, and that is a fate from which I wish more fervently to save you.''
  
  The production quality is crisp and clinical, and Director Bharat Nalluri, did a great job creating the elevator as a symbol of the distance between the two women and their lovers. This is cleverly applied as one sees Delysia in the elevator hiding from Phil, unsure about which man she wishes to marry, and then one sees Joe through the elevator which is symbolic of Miss Pettigrew's distance from men. The lighting is mostly high-key, but low key during the bar sequences with carefully placed spotlights. There are few long shots in the film, but a key one occurs when Edyth sees Miss Pettigrew at the beginning. It's a wonderful way to accentuate a scene and heighten its importance for the entire film.
  
  I highly recommend this film to anyone, whom enjoys romance, comedy or light hearted period films. The witty dialogue, costumes and settings can be appreciated by any film lover.
  I marvel at how such a lovely book published in 1938 receives a film adaptation 70 years later, thus it has even enchanted me enough to hunt down the book due to it's clever storytelling. A definite charmer.
  
  ''I've been looking for you all night, and I believe, all of my life. If you'll have me.''

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  August 14, 2009

  lewiskendell

  This was a alright movie. Francis McDormand and Amy Adams play two very different characters who are actually similar in certain ways. And this allows them to help each other make very important changes in their lives over the course of a very frentic day. Adams flies around the ...( read more)sceen at a breathless, breakneck place, while McDormand is somber and earnest as she gets swept up into the bright lights and parties of high society. It's brief and fluffy and not a bad way to spend a bit of your time.

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• 
  
  April 4, 2009

  JDFortuneFan

  A wonderfully enjoyable romantic comedy... With the enchanting Amy Adams, the quirky Frances McDormand and the distinguished Ciaran Hinds, this cute comedy is delightful and entertaining. The glamorous costuming and dazzling sets just had to the overall enjoyment.

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• 
  
  January 1, 2009

  EarthlyAlien

  "I am not an expert on love, I am an expert on the lack of love."
  
  Early in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, the title heroine, played marvellously by Frances McDormand, a down-on-her luck "governess of last resort" who keeps getting dismissed by huffy high-class Lon...( read more)don employers, strolls the streets, dejected and down. On the soundtrack? A jazzy, swinging version of the Depression-era song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" And that sweet-sour mix of bright horns and sad sentiments, swinging tempos and bleak prospects, in many ways sets the tone for the film.
  
  
  
  Adapting Winifred Watson's 1939 novel, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a nearly perfect piece of entertainment for grown-ups, as Miss Pettigrew's desperation inspires her to fake, fib and flail her way into a job as the social secretary to American actress/singer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), a young woman in severe need of professional assistance and adult supervision. It's fairly easy to predict the rough curves of Miss Pettigrew's plot within moments of meeting the leads - Miss Pettigrew will gain joy and confidence from her exposure to Ms. Lafosse, while Ms. Lafosse will acquire wisdom and character from Miss Pettigrew's example - but the delights of this film are in the details, and everyone involved shapes this seemingly-featherweight entertainment with expert, steady hands.
  
  Miss Pettigrew is not, in fact, a social secretary; however, she's prepared to do whatever is required. And so, in her way, is Delysia; the luxurious flat where she receives Miss Pettigrew is, it turns out, not hers. Delysia is staying there as the lover of nightclub owner Nick (Mark Strong), which makes it all the more necessary that Miss Pettigrew help get Delysia's overnight guest Phil (Tom Payne) - son of the producer of a show Delysia hopes to land the lead in - out the door as swiftly as possible before Nick returns. Miss Pettigrew is mortified, but hardly paralyzed, and she swiftly takes charge of matters. And, in the tradition of British farce, as soon as that crisis is averted, another is ready to take its place.
  
  Directed by Bharat Nalluri (an Indian-born veteran director, virtually unknown outside the B-film and British TV circuits) and adapted for the screen by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) and Simon Magee (Finding Neverland), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day might, at first, seem to hew close to the tone and tenor of well-established master-servant comedies of P.G. Wodehouse, where a flighty, frivolous upper-class protagonist's problems are put right by a steadfast, stalwart domestic; Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, for example. And, in fact, at first Miss Pettigrew seems to have Jeeves' deadpan, and Ms. Lafosse has the scattered thoughts and snug nightgowns of a Wodehouse heroine. But in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Beaufoy and Magee do something much more interesting, and much more inspired.
  
  Both our leads are in trouble, and both of them are frantic to escape circumstance. Delysia isn't just juggling Nick and Phil, but also dealing with Michael (Lee Pace), her piano player, whose recent thwarted proposal to her resulted in a champagne-fuelled altercation with the Yeoman of the Guard and 30 days in jail. Miss Pettigrew is not only operating on borrowed credentials at a job that shouldn't be hers, but it turns out that she also witnessed up-and-coming fashionista Edythe Dubarry (Shirley Henderson) canoodling with a man other than her fiancée, lingerie designer Joe (Ciarán Hinds). Avidly seeking stardom, Delysia is eager to be discovered; hoping to avoid disaster, Miss Pettigrew is eager not to be.
  
  And that is the set-up, but that really just provides an arena for McDormand and Adams (and the rest of the supporting cast) to do their stuff. Adams is eager and bright-eyed, like Carole Lombard or another screwball heroine of the film's time; McDormand flips between frantic desperation and struggling to project an image of unperturbed professionalism. Nalluri also understands an often-forgotten principle of comedic construction: For one of your actors to give a scene-stealing performance, there has to be a scene of value for them to steal in the first place. When Nick comes home just after Phil has been ushered out, the combined efforts of Miss Pettigrew and Delysia to hoodwink him are perfectly constructed, as they baffle him with white lies and swiftly arrange excuses and explanations behind his back.
  
  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day has moments like that, and other moments providing everything you'd like to see in a bright, brassy showbiz '30s farce: Slammed doors and lucky coincidences; whispered imperatives and triple-layered double-talk; the comedy rule of threes; the low behaviour of the upper class; the moral wealth of penniless persons; the public revelations of private feelings. And there's much comedy wrung from the distance between Miss Pettigrew and Delysia: Offering Miss Pettigrew an adult beverage for a quick shot of fortification, Miss Pettigrew explains she's never had a drink. Delysia is quick to clarify: "Oh, it's not a drink, really; it's a cocktail." And so, down the hatch.
  
  But Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day also gets energy and power from being honest about when it is set, and when it was written. Miss Pettigrew walks the line at a soup kitchen for the homeless; newspaper headlines threaten war. And at a cocktail party, as the sky is darkened by bombers and the roar of their engines drowns out the music and laughter, the bright young things in attendance gather on the balcony to cheer. Inside, Miss Pettigrew sits, sad and worried: "They don't remember the last one." "No," Joe commiserates, "they don't."
  
  Moments like that make Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day much more satisfying; we know what's at stake, and so do the characters. And while Adams' giddy, giggling nymph is good for many laughs, she also gets a few richer, deeper moments, too; McDormand also has moments of broad physical comedy (a very rushed clean-up, for example) that she balances with smaller, subtler moments like the play of emotions on her normally stoic face when she realizes things may, in fact, work out for her. Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day may be a fairly small-scale comedy, but it delivers tremendous satisfaction, and that's a victory in and of itself not just for those who made the film but for those who'll see it.

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  January 27, 2010

  mary230986

  I saw this movie without any expectations, but I've been really surprised! Really good! 2 opposites characters, Miss Pettigrew is just like Nanny McPhee or Cinderella's godmother for Delysia

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  January 24, 2010

  MissSaraRuth

  spunky and funny...I really enjoyed this movie!

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• 
  
  January 17, 2010

  LisaMichelleIsAGleek

  I was quite bored at the beginning of this film, but it did pick up towards the end. I liked the ending. It wasn't a great film, but it was still ok. Amy Adams was funny and i liked Lee Pace in it too. An ok film, but only worth the one watch.

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• 
  
  January 14, 2010

  BeckyLovesDelta

  ok movie. Only good part of it was amy adams and her cheeriness!

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• 
  
  January 7, 2010

  ldycat2006

  Very good movie, only 92 minutes, but a lot of story. How a woman goes from almost rags to riches, and fixes in the process 4 wayward lives for the better in the process. Loved it. A nice Happily ever after film. Love Amy Adams in most anything.

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• 
  March 17, 2008

  sudharsunsam

  yes me too got the same reactions when saw the flim........
  
  
  
  seeyou again friend.................
• 
  January 29, 2008

  sarahloveswicked

  This movie looks awesome! I love Amy Adams! I love the line in the trailer where she says: You don't know how close I am to having nothing. It makes me wanna cry! I need friends! If you like Enchanted, 27 Dresses, Sydney White, and Juno, add me!
• 
  November 23, 2007

  JDFortuneFan

  View trailer here-
  
  http://www.movieweb.com/video/V07K19fgijvAIW

• Frances McDormand
• Amy Adams
• Ciarán Hinds
• Shirley Henderson
• Lee Pace
• Mark Strong
• Tom Payne

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