Pettigrew a delightful cinematic holiday
Pettigrew a delightful cinematic holiday
Pettigrew a delightful cinematic holiday by Sara Michelle Fetters - SGN Contributing Writer

Miss Pettigrew
Lives for a day
Opening march 7

Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Oscar-winner Frances McDormand) is a middle-aged governess suddenly without a job and with no means for survival. The employment agency for which she sometimes works wants nothing more to do with her, and with England on the brink of war with Germany, prospects aren't exactly on the up and up.

For maybe the first time in her whole downtrodden life Miss Pettigrew decides she is not going to accept the status quo, intercepting a lucrative employment opportunity far outside her comfort zone. Arriving at the door of American actress, singer and socialite Delysia Lafosse (Oscar-nominee Amy Adams), she finds that within moments the beguiling younger woman has decided to engage this bedraggled visitor as her social secretary, catapulting Guinevere into a high-society world the likes of which she's never imagined.

A spirited 24-hour feminine fairytale made in the same vein as Hollywood classics like Born Yesterday or Lady for a Day, director Bharat Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a small-scale delight almost impossible to resist. While its pleasures are relatively small (some would even say minor), the smile on my face leaving the theater was still as vibrant and as effervescent as any I've had at the end of a motion picture this year.

Which isn't to say this is a movie that's going to stick with me all the way until December. The story (based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson) is slight and more than a tad forgettable, and trying to figure out where all of it is heading isn't exactly what I would call a mental chore. If anything, the film is a forgone conclusion almost before it even begins, anyone with even half a brain knowing who is going to fall in love with who and what is going to happen to them long before they even do.

And yet, the film is so remarkably charming, so beautifully engaging and so blissfully performed by its two leading ladies, its over-familiarity isn't remotely a problem. Writers David Magee and Simon Beaufoy have crafted a wonderfully winning script, while Nalluri does a magnificent job channeling the ghosts of Capra, Cukor, Hawks and McCarey in all their early career, screwball glory.

But the real reason this film is a winning charmer is due entirely to the effervescent combination of McDormand and Adams. While the support from costars Lee Pace, Shirley Henderson and (especially) Ciarán Hinds is more than up to par, it is these two leading ladies who make Miss Pettigrew soar. Individually they are sublime, both crafting beguilingly unique characterizations that jump off the celluloid. Together they are downright sensational, a brilliantly feminine tag team of resolution, regret, perseverance and emotional awakening that's truly a joy.

In other words, I loved it. McDormand is at her busybody best, and it's great to see her cutting loose a bit and having such a wondrously comedic time. As for Adams, her breathily robust portrait is one part Monroe, two parts Holliday and one additional piece entirely of her own whimsically unique inspiration. While it's all in service to a tale that's slight, unassuming, and hugely familiar, that doesn't make the accomplishment any less wonderful. All in all, I can't imagine a more joyful experience sitting in a theater watching a movie than this one, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - a jolly cinematic holiday worth the ticket price.