Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Movie Title--  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Release Year--  2008

Running Time--  1 Hour and 32 Minutes

Director--  Bharat Nalluri

Cast--  Francis McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Lee Pace, Tom Payne, Shirley Henderson, Mark Strong

Miss Guinevere Pettigrew is a middle aged governess in London that is herself dismissed from her job.  She finds herself walking into a job opportunity and soon finds she does not like what she has gotten herself into.

Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Francis McDormand) is a governess in London and finds herself without a job mainly because she is hard to get along with.  She goes back to the agency to see if she can find another employer where she is told not to come back until her attitude has changed.  While she is there, a secretary comes in to tell the manager about a woman by the name of Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), a young American performer that is in need of some help and lays her card on the desk.  When the manager steps out of the office for a moment, Miss Pettigrew takes the card and arrives at Delysia's apartment the next morning.  

As soon as Miss Pettigrew walks into the apartment, she sees Delysia in a frenzy.  Willing to help the young woman, Miss Pettigrew offers to go get what she assumes is Delysia's son out of bed, only to find a grown man named Phil (Tom Payne) laying there, completely nude.  No sooner than they have him out of the door, Nick (Mark Strong) the owner of the apartment and another one of Delysia's lovers comes through the door.  After some heavy persuasion by Miss Pettigrew he leaves and when she tells Delysia that she can not work for her, Delysia begs her to stay.  Miss Pettigrew reluctantly agrees and Delysia whisks her out the door to attend a fashion show where she finds her friend Edythe and the two of them take Miss Pettigrew for a "transformation" but not before she meets Joe (Ciaran Hinds), Edythe's ex-fiancee and one of the designers of the fashion and embarrasses herself.

After Miss Pettigrew is transformed into a new woman, Delysia takes her back to the apartment where yet another of her lovers is waiting on her.  Michael (Lee Pace) has broken into the apartment after spending 30 days in jail and tells her that it is now or never, she will have all of him and marry him or she will have none of him and never see him again.  He then leaves, telling her that he needs her decision by the end of that night.

The events of the evening are a roller coaster of ups and downs but with Miss Pettigrew's help, Delysia realizes what she wants most and Miss Pettigrew finds love for herself.

For some reason, even since this film first came out, I wanted to see it.  I am not sure why I am just now getting around to watching it but I found that I  was not disappointed.  I happened to enjoy the film, although it is a little silly.  This is a feel good romantic comedy so it does have a roller coaster of emotions from happiness, heartbreak, confusion and finally love.  I really liked Francis McDormand as Miss Pettigrew and I haven't really seen a performance by Amy Adams that I haven't enjoyed.  The film does tend to have a zany feel to it, like some of the ones from the 20's, 30's and 40's but since it is set just prior to World War II, that zaniness gives it an old timey feel.  I think this is a pretty decent film to curl up with, especially if you are in need of a chick flick.  Until next time, Don't Forget the Popcorn!