Miss Pettigrew Lives is a pop song like movie. It is enjoyable right from the start. It is quick, and has little substance.
There is really not much to the film, but it is a lot of fun. Ms Pettigrew, played by Frances MacDormand, is a down and out nanny in Victorian pre-war London. She is a Chaplin-like character in drab clothes and eating from soup charts while watching the upper class from a far. She meets Delysia LaFosse, played adorably by Amy Adams. Delysia is an actress/cabaret singer/gold digger. She lives with night club owner in London, is screwing a young theatre manager, and is singing with her love Michael. Michael plays piano.
While juggling her three men each with something to offer her, she meets Ms. Pettigrew who steals an assignment from Nanny Temp situation. She uses some quick thinking and gets Delysia out of one jam after another. Ms. LaFosse, not her real name, decides to keep Ms. Pettigrew as an asset. She takes her shopping, introduces her to her glamorous life where meets the “the bitch” and the love interest. It has all the makings of girl movie.
After this set up is over most movies spend sometimes milking what they can from the audiences’ attention before they reach the ending climax. This one doesn’t do that. After the set-up, the movie goes right the climax. Brilliant!
Never missing a beat, Delysia has to pick her man. They, of course, fight over her first. There’s fist fight. Think Bridget Jones diary. Delysia’s story gets resolved. Ms. Pettigrew finds herself in the same place where we first found her; again like a good Chaplin short, but this is chick-flick, and Ms. Pettigrew has her romantic ending.
Overall, the movie is very entertaining. It is taut in that very little is wasted. It draws you in very quickly then it’s over. Amy Adams is joy to watch as she plays her girly alpha-female role a la Enchanted. It is fun little throw-away film.
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