Michael LownMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: that's all
May 16th 2008 01:34
I have found it impossible to get worked up about Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day in any way. It’s a really nice movie, and yes I mean that as a back-handed compliment. It’s sweet, inoffensive, and peppered with a few lovely subtle moments. It’s also oddly bland.
In the 1930’s the titular Miss Pettigrew, brought to us by the vaguely befuddled Frances McDormand, is a failed governess in desperate need of a job. Failing that, she’ll take a meal. Improvising wildly, she finds herself in the service of aspiring actress Delysia Lafosse. We follow the pair over 24 hours as romance, hijinks and other screwball events follow – all of them inevitable.
The writing is witty, though not laugh-out-loud, and most of the performances are solid. McDormand doesn’t display her usual charismatic spark, but she remains likeable. Amy Adams as Delysia is marvellously attired, and amusingly naïve. Shirley Henderson is as close as anything comes to being hysterical, with her high-camp villainous scowl. Ciaran Hinds is boring – either a waste of talent or a character, it’s difficult to isolate.
What slows everything down is the staging. It feels like it would all make much more sense on a stage, like an Oscar Wilde-lite comedy of manners that hasn’t made the full conversion to the silver screen. The sets feel like a backlot box which in it’s own ironic way does give it a 1930’s feel. That didn’t seem like the intention though, it seemed like the result of budget restrictions.
The ominous shadow of the approaching war it well used, and everyone appears to be delighting in the period detail. The tone is right, and the pieces are there, but the whole thing lacks the kinetic spark to give it any momentum. Instead it softly treads through the screwball beats, until the whole thing completely runs out of puff.
It’s a chick flick for mum. You’ll be amused, then you might just check your watch.
In the 1930’s the titular Miss Pettigrew, brought to us by the vaguely befuddled Frances McDormand, is a failed governess in desperate need of a job. Failing that, she’ll take a meal. Improvising wildly, she finds herself in the service of aspiring actress Delysia Lafosse. We follow the pair over 24 hours as romance, hijinks and other screwball events follow – all of them inevitable.
The writing is witty, though not laugh-out-loud, and most of the performances are solid. McDormand doesn’t display her usual charismatic spark, but she remains likeable. Amy Adams as Delysia is marvellously attired, and amusingly naïve. Shirley Henderson is as close as anything comes to being hysterical, with her high-camp villainous scowl. Ciaran Hinds is boring – either a waste of talent or a character, it’s difficult to isolate.
What slows everything down is the staging. It feels like it would all make much more sense on a stage, like an Oscar Wilde-lite comedy of manners that hasn’t made the full conversion to the silver screen. The sets feel like a backlot box which in it’s own ironic way does give it a 1930’s feel. That didn’t seem like the intention though, it seemed like the result of budget restrictions.
The ominous shadow of the approaching war it well used, and everyone appears to be delighting in the period detail. The tone is right, and the pieces are there, but the whole thing lacks the kinetic spark to give it any momentum. Instead it softly treads through the screwball beats, until the whole thing completely runs out of puff.
It’s a chick flick for mum. You’ll be amused, then you might just check your watch.
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