Front Page > World > Article Title/Fixture Title

Front Page > Entertainment

Email | Print | Subscribe

Click-2-Listen

advertisement

Delightful time spent with 'Miss Pettigrew'

By Kelly Jane Torrance
March 7, 2008

Frances McDormand (left) plays the social secretary to Amy Adams' character in Bharat Nalluri's "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day."

---

Guinevere Pettigrew just can't catch a break.

First, the middle-aged governess in late-1930s London is unceremoniously fired without pay. Then, her single suitcase of possessions falls open when she bumps into a man just getting out of jail. Frightened and embarrassed, she abandons her stuff. The unassuming woman is bumped again at a soup kitchen and loses her last chance at a meal.

When she calls at her employment agency the next morning, she's told she'll never get a job from them again. So we don't blame Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) when she steals the calling card of a woman looking to hire someone.

When she arrives, she's immediately told by the fluttery American singer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams) to wake up her boy. But instead of the young charge Miss Pettigrew expects to find, it's a grown man in bed. The owner of Delysia's flat is about to arrive and wouldn't be too happy to find another man there.

Miss P, a vicar's daughter, is shocked by the proceedings — though she quickly dispatches the "crisis." Delysia, who wants to hire her as a social secretary, begs her to stay. "The crisis is ongoing," she cries.

The red-headed Miss Adams, who just performed a song from the Oscar nominated "Enchanted" at this year's ceremony, is so enchanting here in "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" that Miss P is simply swept along on her energy, much as the audience will be by this supremely delightful film.

Delysia needs some help sorting out her love life. We know, however, as soon as we meet him which of her three suitors is "the one." There's the rich nightclub owner Nick (Mark Strong), the West End producer Phil (Tom Payne) and the impoverished pianist Michael (Lee Pace).

She's not the only one with love problems. Joe (Ciaran Hinds) has just broken off his engagement with Delysia's friend and stylish boutique owner Edythe (Shirley Henderson), suspecting her of infidelities. Miss P knows the truth, but Edythe also knows the truth about Miss P — that she's not the connected social secretary she's led everyone to believe she is.

Click-2-Listen

Front Page > Entertainment