‘Pettigrew’ is flimsy, has lovely lampshades

On your desk, is there a Cathy coffee mug filled with peanut M&M’s? If so, you will love, love, love Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, a double-whammy period-costume comedy/chick flick so earnest its very title seems like a Simpsons joke. (Didn’t Marge and Lisa sneak off to see this one rainy afternoon?)

For what it’s worth, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is better than its title, thanks to its star leads and unblinking devotion to its hoary old heart-warmer of a plot, which tracks the down-on-her-luck nanny Miss Pettigrew (Oscar® winner Frances McDormand) as she stumbles into a job as social secretary for the frazzled starlet Delysia Lafosse (Oscar® nominee Amy Adams). What follows is essentially a female spin on Jeeves and Wooster, with the boozy Wooster replaced by the slutty Delysia, and the ingenious butler replaced by the bossy secretary—although I don’t imagine fussy Jeeves was ever subjected to such a glorious makeover as Miss Pettigrew, who journeys from soup-kitchen hobo to (spoiler alert!) rich man’s fiancée in the course of a single day.

If you like movies where people journey from soup-kitchen hobos to rich men’s fiancées in the course of a single day, Miss Pettigrew will not disappoint. Anyone looking for anything special—wit, humor, better-than-okay performances—will leave empty-handed. Both McDormand and Adams bring what they can to the proceedings, but given the flimsiness of the material, neither can achieve much beyond a good, sturdy stock character. (Adams in particular comes off like a cartoon in search of a cause.) Still, the whole thing flounces by inoffensively enough, and the set design (by Oscar® nominees Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer) is incongruously accomplished. As my companion noted, “I know it sucked, but every single lampshade in that movie was fucking gorgeous.”

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY DIR. BHARAT NALLURI  RATED PG-13 | OPENS FRI

Tags: Film, miss pettigrew lives for a day, review