Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Movie review
From Time Out New York
And what a day it is! Within 24 hours, frumpy London governess Guinevere Pettigrew (McDormand) finds herself out of work and, through a little deception, ends up employed as the personal assistant of a ditzy blond would-be starlet with the unlikely but delightful name of Delysia Lafosse (Adams). Like an accidental Mary Poppins, the unremarkable Pettigrew somehow manages to solve Delysia’s romantic puzzle, which involves three men she has been keeping on the line—a nightclub-owning gangster, a horndog theatrical producer and a charming but broke piano player. Gee, which one do you think she’ll end up with? And could there be a little patch of happiness for Miss Pettigrew, too?
Miss Pettigrew is aiming for the breezy delights of P.G. Wodehouse by way of Feydeau, with Adams doing a convincing impression of Carole Lombard circa My Man Godfrey. If Bharat Nalluri can’t always sustain the fizz, it’s certainly not Adams’s fault; this is another eye-catching performance from the actor, who seems to be specializing in playing dumb (Junebug, Enchanted). By contrast, McDormand and Ciarán Hinds (as a fashion designer who’s smitten with Guinevere) are both working in a lower key of comedy tinged with real emotions. Think of them as the bitters in the champagne cocktail.
Author: Hank Sartin
Time Out New York Issue 649: March 6-12, 2008
Cast & crew
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Cast: Ciarán Hinds, Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Tom Payne, Mark Strong, Shirley Henderson full cast
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 92 mins
US Release: Mar 7 2008
Most popular on this site
Features
Street fighting men
BAM celebrates John Carpenter’s sci-fi-inflected rage against the machine.
Zoom in:
<em>They Live'</em>s Roddy Piper
The American experience
British comedian Steve Coogan gets in touch with his inner Yank in <em>Hamlet 2.</em>
Spanish intuition
Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall flirt away an Iberian summer in <em>Vicky Cristina Barcelona.</em>
Shadows and frogs
Crime pays in Film Forum’s expansive French noir series.
Strip tease
IFC’s new midnight-movie series revisits Hollywood’s groovy ’60s scene.
To air is human
<em>Man on Wire,</em> a new doc about a surreal Manhattan morning, aims high.




What do you think?
Post your review now