Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

“Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”

USA. 2008. Directed by Bharat Nalluri. Screenplay by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy. Based on the novel by Winifred Watson. Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Lee Pace, Shirley Henderson, Nick Colderelli, Tom Payne, Stephanie Cole, Beatie Edney and Clare Clifford.

Rating: ★★★

Curious how upbeat and cheery the title, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day sounds despite that, in a harsher, ironic frame of mind, it suggests that the titular character has not had a day to really live out her life. That growing cynicism is probably why 1930s screwball comedies with such deceptive titles have been so rare in the movies lately. Well, it is refreshing to know that a breezy screwball comedy can be made without being a remake or relying on obvious references to other movies of the genre.

The movie, of course, still carries the common theme of most period screwball comedies: class divide. The misunderstood underdog character in this story is a lower-class, middle-aged woman named Guinevere Pettigrew who can barely make a living on wages earned from working as a nanny from home to home. After being fired from her latest hirer for being too difficult, rigid and stern as well as having a disheveled look, her request for another job from the employment agency gets turned down. Thus, when she sees a card about an opening to work with a rising American socialite and aspiring actress, Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), she secretly takes it and quickly seizes the opportunity.

Little does she know that the job opening is not for a nanny but for a social secretary. Delysia is not as genteel or refined as Guinevere expected either when she first arrives and the same could be said for about 15 minutes of the film when McDormand and particularly Adams act a little too histrionically to reflect the latter’s high-strung personality and the former’s improvisational adjustment to it. The scene itself is certainly supposed to be quite frantic but the direction should keep it either in check or in focus, which it doesn’t particularly when Adams is moving about frantically in the background and the camera unwisely stays steadily on McDormand. I half-expected even the sets to start wobbling and moving around.

After that opening scene though, both actresses and the film finally ease into a smooth and easygoing chemistry. McDormand’s Guinevere uses her quick wit and womanly wisdom to guide Adams’ Delysia to sort out her messy, frenzied life of hastily, foolishly seducing men to earn acting roles and figuring out whether one man, Michael (Lee Pace) may have more sincere feelings about her. Guinevere gets a makeover, too, as Delysia brings out the inner beauty under the ragged clothes and the frumpy hairdo, though, of course, she starts out being an impostor of sorts as well.

To make an unadorned throwback to the period featherbrained comedies rather than a haughty homage, the filmmakers chose wisely to adapt the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson and the material obviously fit like a glove to make a cross of the writers’ imaginations between David Magee of Finding Neverland and Simon Beaufoy of The Full Monty. The peculiar credit, however, is in director, Bharat Nalluri who successfully steps outside of his usual filmography of forgettable, chaotic B-movies. His direction early in the movie is a little too shaky and frenetic as aforementioned but thankfully calms down to a jazzy mood and lets the actors shine through the bubbly material. He also makes sure to give a slightly bittersweet edge by staying true to the period in which WWII was beginning and parties were halted in fear of bombing raids.

McDormand is the steady anchor of the story, giving the film its old-fashioned balance of light-footed comedy, sympathy and world-weariness and even transforming the classical running gag of her character being always hungry and having her food taken away just when tries to eat it. Adams could have toned down her Carole Lombard-like mannerisms a bit in the beginning but lends her usual irresistible lovability to bring out her character’s confused ingénue qualities amidst her initial haughty, carefree attitude of looking to the quickest advantage to her own aspirations. She also gets to display her natural singing ability again in an unexpected, touching rendition of “If I Didn't Care.” The nicest surprise though is in the great character actor, Ciaran Hinds, who, after playing many a second banana role, refreshingly gets to play a woman’s lingerie designer devoid of all the clichés of movie fashion designers and become a desired romantic lead for McDormand’s character.

Comedies like this tend to be brushed off by most audiences because they seem to be done so easily. The irony, of course, is that it is that much more difficult to make movies like this so effortlessly lovable. A movie like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is proof that filmmakers acknowledge there are people like myself who are willing to appreciate the naively simple title and their efforts to shed our own everyday cynicism.