Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2008)

 
/</gidiv id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;"/>/giBOTTOM LINE: Surprisingly entertaining with sincere performances by the cast, “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” is an old-fashioned Hollywood film that you do not normally see any more, despite its flare for being overly dramatic at times.
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">THE GOOD: One of the great things about this film is that it is the type of film that does not get made any more. Sporting an old-fashioned style and look, the film is a farce and a genuine drama, all at the same time. Frances McDormand lends a sincere gravitas to these proceedings as the tough, but down-on-her-luck nanny Guinevere Pettigrew, who out of a moment of desperation, unexpectedly finds herself as the social secretary for the flamboyant American singer/actress Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). What ensues is a trip through high society and Pettigrew’s attempts to keep Lafosse out of trouble, to hilarious, and sometimes touching results. Aside from the excellent production design and visuals, the film is held together by the genuine performances on display by the whole cast. They clearly look as if they are all having a good time, but also find those moments of drama and seriousness to make the whole exercise compelling. The film, of course, gravitates to a happy ending where all the characters end up with what they deserve, with the final sequence being low key and satisfying thanks largely to the performances of the actors in this scene, which could have so easily been pathetic and contrived. “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” is a fun way to spend a few hours.
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">THE BAD: As with old-style Hollywood films, some of what you see is over the top. That may have worked fifty years ago, but it does not really work in a modern film, despite how well it is integrated in to the narrative. Also, despite the best efforts of the filmmakers, they cannot always paper over the modest budget on display, but they do a decent job with what they have.<span style="color: #0000ff;">RATING 7.5/10

BOTTOM LINE: Surprisingly entertaining with sincere performances by the cast, “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” is an old-fashioned Hollywood film that you do not normally see any more, despite its flare for being overly dramatic at times.</span>
THE GOOD: One of the great things about this film is that it is the type of film that does not get made any more. Sporting an old-fashioned style and look, the film is a farce and a genuine drama, all at the same time. Frances McDormand lends a sincere gravitas to these proceedings as the tough, but down-on-her-luck nanny Guinevere Pettigrew, who out of a moment of desperation, unexpectedly finds herself as the social secretary for the flamboyant American singer/actress Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). What ensues is a trip through high society and Pettigrew’s attempts to keep Lafosse out of trouble, to hilarious, and sometimes touching results. Aside from the excellent production design and visuals, the film is held together by the genuine performances on display by the whole cast. They clearly look as if they are all having a good time, but also find those moments of drama and seriousness to make the whole exercise compelling. The film, of course, gravitates to a happy ending where all the characters end up with what they deserve, with the final sequence being low key and satisfying thanks largely to the performances of the actors in this scene, which could have so easily been pathetic and contrived. “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” is a fun way to spend a few hours.
THE BAD: As with old-style Hollywood films, some of what you see is over the top. That may have worked fifty years ago, but it does not really work in a modern film, despite how well it is integrated in to the narrative. Also, despite the best efforts of the filmmakers, they cannot always paper over the modest budget on display, but they do a decent job with what they have. 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Last updated: 2011-04-04 03:52:23 by todd_murphy

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew is a nanny in London, England, circa 1938. Everyone is getting all tensed up over the possibility of a war in Europe. And things are still tight, economically speaking.

Anyway, Miss Pettigrew is very opinionated, very headstrong, and very inflexible. For these reasons, she keeps getting fired by the people the nanny agency she works for sends her to. The agency has finally had enough of this, and tells Miss Pettigrew she is dismissed. She pleads with the agency for one more chance, as she is at the end of her financial rope and has only the clothing in her suitcase (which she manages to lose). But just after the head of the agency fires her, she leaves Miss Pettigrew alone, giving Miss Pettigrew the chance to snatch a referral slip from the desk.

The referral brings her to a flaky American actress named Delysia Lafosse, who has actually asked for a personal assistant, a social secretary to help her organize and manage her time. And one of the things that makes Miss Lafosse's life complicated is that she is being wooed by three different men: a piano player who himself is struggling to make ends meet; a shady theater producer who has promised her the lead in his next play; and an older, somewhat wealthy man who treats people like collateral.

Miss Pettigrew realizes that the referral is a mistake, as she's a nanny -- she take care of children, not grownups. But Miss Lafosse begs Miss Pettigrew to stay (not realizing that Miss Pettigrew is a nanny). And Miss Pettigrew realizes that managing someone else's time is pretty much the same whether it's for small children or for a scatterbrained young woman who is trying to sort out her life.

Miss Lafosse gives Miss Pettigrew a makeover and new clothing, and enjoys the status benefit implied from having her own social secretary. And so the two of them have a day on the town, culminating in an evening party at which the producer will announce who will be the lead in his new play... a part he has promised to more than one young actress, it seems.

This light romantic comedy is a period piece. The re-creation of London of 1938 (or maybe early 1939) is done very well, down to the smaller details. And the plot itself flows along smoothly as well. What makes things interesting is that the central character, Miss Pettigrew herself, is not really a participant in any of the activities she winds up being part of. She's more of an observer... or, perhaps more accurately, a catalyst. Having been passed off successfully as a "social secretary", people gravitate to her for advice, which she is able to give by drawing on her twenty-plus years as a nanny. And of course she is having the best day she's had in years, without really planning any of it.

Miss Pettigrew is played by Frances McDormand, who I have always liked. And here, she carries off the prim-and-proper nanny who winds up out of her element very well. She is counterbalanced by Amy Adams as the flighty Miss Lafosse, who also delivers a winning performance. With these two charismatic actresses in the lead, it's hard to go wrong.

Although this is ultimately a romantic comedy, the movie does have a point to it, the message that that being true to oneself is what is really important in life. It's a lesson Miss Pettigrew teaches Miss Lafosse while simultaneously learning it herself.

I didn't recognize anyone else in the cast, but they do their bits well, particularly Lee Pace as the piano player and Shirley Henderson as a fashionista who has her own agenda in all of what is going on.

Backed up by some wonderful period music, and handled deftly with a lighthearted touch, this movie was an unexpected delight. I rented it because it starred Frances McDormand and that it had good reviews, without really having any idea what the movie was going to be about. And it was worth the rental.

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Last updated: 2010-04-09 19:34:36 by Xenon

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day — 8

So this was one of those that my girlfriend dragged me into. It was not a fantastic film, but it was still charming and a non-stop chaos throughout the entire movie.

This movie takes place over a 24 hour period. And it follows the life of Miss Guinivere Pettigrew, a woman who had lost her job and was basically homeless when she stumbled into ‘work’ accidentally for one of my most hated actresses of all time, Amy Adams. I don’t know what it is about her, but every time I see her I have the almost uncontrollable urge to choke-slam her into the ground. Anyways, Pettigrew, by no means of her own, becomes Delysia Lafosse(Amy Adams character) ‘Social Secretary’. Now mind you Pettigrew looks like she has been hanging around garbage dumps and all this, so she looks like crap. Not to mention that she’s hungry throughout most of the film, it’s kinda the films running joke really.

Anyways, Lafosse is in love with 3 men, all at the same time, and she has to play juggler while trying to not let the other men know that the other men exist. It’s kinda fun to see how chaotic it all gets, especially when all 3 of them come to her party and try to grab her attention. Not to mention that at some point during the whole fiasco all 3 of them find the time to propose to her. Yes, and during all of this Pettigrew is stuck in between Lafosse and everyone she comes across. It’s really hard to talk about because everything is so inter-mixed with each other.

I won’t ruin the ending, but it actually brought a smile to my face for a while it was so well done.

Oh ya, the film takes place in London approx in 1939, so just right before WWII started. Really the atmosphere and location just add to the interesting piece that is Miss Pettigrew.

All in all if you have the time, this movie is good, but only if you are in the mood to follow a crazy story, that actually easily could have happened back in that time.

Base Score = 6
+1 for non-stop Chaos/the entire movie happening over the course of 1 day
-1 for Amy Adams
+1 for a running joke
+1 for a good ending
= 8/10

Last updated: 2010-01-12 01:52:34 by Tolll

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day reminds me of what I thought the  Bridget Jones films would be. This film has more comedy than drama in it, and it  is that trait that really endears the film to my tastes.
Starring Amy Adams and Frances McDormand as two women who couldn’t be more  different from fire and ice, the chemistry between these two is surprisingly  refreshing. One would never think that they would work so well as a team. On top  of that their characters play off each other very well and the audience really  can believe their performances.
The men in this flick are understated, but since this is about the two women,  are you surprised? Lee Pace is probably the best of the bunch. His character has  the most depth and is the best person. There is also the little matter of the  audience falling in love with him for the way he was treated by Delysia. Of  course, these days it could just be that we still feel sorry for him for the wat  ABC unceremoniously cancelled Pushing Daisies, but I won’t go  there.
Ciaran Hinds’ relationship with Frances McDormand really lights up the  screen, especially when they finally give in and just go with it. I would say it  is a shame that it took so long for them to get this going ,but the buildup  makes it that much more believable.
Comedy-wise, the first half of this film is almost a clinic is the slapstick  comedy of this time period. However, the second half of this flick seems to  forget that this is intended to be a comedy, albeit a romantic one. In other  words, we have here, in essence, two films, and it really turns the viewer off  because of the inconsistent tone, for lack of a better term.
This is such a cute little film, I can’t belive I haven’t watched it before  now. Amy Adams is perfectly cast as Delysia LaFosse. Aside from trying to be a  redheaded Marilyn Monroe, it was almost as if she was made for this time period.  The love triangle(s) add a little bit of a twist that keep the film from going  into humdrum monotony. Obviously, this is not a flick I would watch week in and  week out,but it is one I wouldn’t object to seeing every now and then. Why not  check it out for yourself and see what you think?
4 out of 5 stars
http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

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