When my sister-in-law saw the commercial for Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, she wondered who would want to see such a movie. "Ooh, I would," I replied. It's totally my kind of experience: Saturday afternoon, Upper East Side, with all the old ladies. Ultimately, my viewing took place on a Thursday afternoon in Midtown with about six middle-aged women. Even without the ideal audience, I still think I would be ambivalent about this flick.
Guinevere Pettigrew and Delysia Lafosse populate a London of fashion shows and cocktail parties in the fizzy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The city is also on the cusp of World War II, but director Bharat Nalluri and screenwriters David Magee and Simon Beaufoy graft the gas masks onto to the decadence with a great deal less success.
Through a lie and a bit of luck, hard-scrabble governess Miss Pettigrew (Emma Thompson-esque Frances McDormand) enters the world of madcap entertainer Delysia (Amy Adams, whose doe-eyed shtick is beginning to wear thin after Junebug and Enchanted) as her social secretary. Despite having no obvious skills for the job, Pettigrew quickly earns Delysia’s admiration by helping her to balance the three men in her life and figure out her career path. In turn, Delysia rewards Pettigrew with affection and the obligatory makeover.
This all sounds like fun, light comedy, but in fact the threat of war becomes more prominent as Miss Pettigrew progresses, and Nalluri can’t balance the frivolity and the fear. Most of the battle chatter is scored with swing music that feels forced and out of place. At one point, it’s implied Delysia is singing at night during an air-raid alarm, yet oranges and purples dominate the sky. Was Nalluri afraid to make the palate too dark? And Pettigrew’s tentative, war-tinged romance with an older lingerie designer (Ciaran Hinds), while poignant, seems to belong in another movie.
Ultimately, Miss Pettigrew is a sparkling Champagne cocktail gone flat.
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2 comments:
Well, you did two things for me...
1. Answered the question of whether I want to take the time to see this film (I don't).
2. Confirmed that I'm not the only person who thinks "Emma Thompson" every time I see France McDormand in the promos.
Thank you on both counts!
You're welcome! Glad to be of service.
What's more, I had a very specific Emma Thompson image as I watched Frances McDormand in "Miss Pettigrew:" "Nanny McPhee." Sure, the latter is a kid's movie, but it's that whole "ugly-to-pretty" thing that creates the idea for me.
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