March 7, 2008

Review- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is the story of Guinevere Pettigrew (the amazing Frances McDormand), a down on her luck governess who spends one spectacular life changing day in the company of an American singer and actress Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams) on the eve of the of World War II in London.

Miss Pettigrew gets dropped into Delysia's crazy high-society life as her new "social secretary", and helps her negotiates not one, but three men and her own desire to remake herself from her humble coal mining roots. Both women wind up transforming each other and each finds what she needs at the end of their exciting 24 hours together.

Adams plays the same type of effusive character that we grew accustomed to with last year's Enchanted. She just pops off the screen. I'm ready to see her play a different role and that's clearly coming later this year in Doubt and Sunshine Cleaning. She's a really talented young actress and is able to hold her own against one of the best in the business, Frances McDormand. What I love about McDormand is that every character she plays seems so incredibly different from the previous one.

The film is based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, who, according to producers was a woman ahead of her time. "Her books were about women changing their lives, flouting convention, and addressing class tensions and extramarital sex." Gotta add her to my reading list.

I walked out of the film with a goofy little smile on my face liking it way much more than I expected to. Hope you enjoy.