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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Oversexed, screwy, and also, dowdy delight

By BETSY SHERMAN | March 5, 2008

3.0 Stars

Frances McDormand as Miss Pettigrew

Director Bharat Nalluri gives the old follow-your-heart message a new coat of paint with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Like the glitzy-but-leaden Mrs. Henderson Presents, his film juxtaposes glamorous London nightlife with WW2-eve jitters. But Miss Pettigrew rises above nostalgia, thanks to pitch-perfect turns by Frances McDormand as a dowdy governess and Amy Adams as an oversexed American jazz baby. A day that begins as farce, when the jobless, homeless Miss P. stumbles into Delysia’s fizzy world of silk lingerie and sugar daddies, takes on gravitas as the older woman, a self-proclaimed expert in “the lack of love,” steers the younger one toward the poor but sincere beau (Lee Pace) she’s taken for granted. Eventually, Miss P. dares to look beyond her own lowly station, at the tuxedo’d swell played by Ciarán Hinds. Adams is a sensational screwball, McDormand is a deadpan delight, and Shirley Henderson is massively entertaining as a catty boutiquière. 101 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs

Related: Light Reading, Flashbacks, March 10, 2006, Brokeback breakdown, More

Topics: Reviews , Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, More

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ARTICLES BY BETSY SHERMAN

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At the center of this superior stranded-men-picked-off-by-external-threat thriller is Ottway, an anguished loner powerfully played by Liam Neeson.

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With a title that refers not to squirrels but to plane markings, Red Tails dramatizes the struggles and triumphs of African-American pioneers, the Tuskegee Airmen.

REVIEW: THE ARTIST | December 20, 2011
The advent of talking pictures sends a screen idol into both a career nosedive and an identity crisis in Michel Hazanavicius's flashback to Hollywood's transitional period of the late '20s.

REVIEW: LIKE CRAZY | November 01, 2011
Like Crazy is hooked onto a series of plot points — the bureaucratic hassles wrought by Londoner Anna's impulsive decision to overstay her student visa so she can remain in LA with boyfriend Jacob — yet it's quintessentially character-driven.

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