63%
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97%
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 142
Fresh: 110 | Rotten: 32
Miss Pettigrew is a breezy period comedy carried by the strong performances of Amy Adams and Frances McDormand.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 9
Miss Pettigrew is a breezy period comedy carried by the strong performances of Amy Adams and Frances McDormand.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 79,778
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A late-'30s-era London governess hired to work in the home of a high-profile nightclub chanteuse gets a taste of the good life when she is assigned the task of sorting out the singer's many unseemly affairs in a period comedy starring Frances McDormand and adapted from the novel by Winifred Watson. Unfairly and unceremoniously dismissed from her latest position without so much as a penny of severance pay, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (McDormand) realizes that in order to stay financially afloat
Mar 7, 2008 Wide
Aug 19, 2008
$12.3M
Focus Features
All Critics (144) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (111) | Rotten (32) | DVD (1)
[Ciaran Hinds is] a terrific character actor, and he actually gets to play somewhat of a romantic lead in the story with Frances McDormand, which I thought was so sweet and gave this film just a little bit of gravity.
At least Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day has the good grace to go wrong quickly; you don't have to sit there squirming with doubt.
Based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew is a veritable treat. Wisely cast, this handsome production is a delightful farcical fairy tale, bolstered by moments of depth and emotion.
You can't criticize a soufflé for not being a side of beef.
Miss Pettigrew is one of those rare cases where a filmmaker's good intentions, and the enthusiasm of his actors, are enough to fill in the cracks.
This nostalgic Cinderella story starring Hollywood's scandalously underutilized treasure is a jubilee for McDormand and jolly good fun for most everyone else.
A valentine to a by-gone era; one of the ten best films of 2008
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a well-acted comedy with enough old-fashioned qualities to make it an enjoyable experience for long-standing audiences.
The spectre of impending war hangs heavily in the background of this romantic comedy, giving it a bit more heft.
Period comedies are a tough act to swallow for some, but if you are on the fence at all, please make sure Miss Pettigrew lives for more than just one day."
A neo-screwball hip comedy jazzed up with a classy swing score and a fresh coat of salty, rapid-fire conversations, this midlife Cinderella satire embraces the rude antics of the scandalous UK elite, as world war looms all around their silly, empty heads.
There's not a lot to it really--no deep underlying message other than an exploration of women's roles in society at the time.
In short, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is fluffy and forgettable, but it's also undeniably entertaining, thanks to pacey direction and delightful performances from McDormand and Adams.
McDormand is left trying for emotional depth in a sea of middling farce and semi-sophisticated comedy.
It's lucky that Amy Adams and Frances McDormand lend their best charms to Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, otherwise this featherweight Art Deco fancy might drift away like a soap bubble, and go 'pop!'
American Lee Pace, from TV's Pushing Daisies, manages not one but several creditable English accents, sometimes unfortunately all in the same sentence, but whose emotional depth shows up this ball of fluff as insubstantial. Forgettable.
The laughs are gentle but regular and all roles are played brilliantly, especially McDormand and the gorgeous Amy Adams as Delysia. Miss Pettigrew is 90 minutes of charming escapism - a perfect movie for mums.
Making a film usually involves a script, a director and a budget. Miss Pettigrew, on the other hand, is so unbelievably frothy, it looks as if it was prepared using merely a bucket of warm water and some soap flakes.
I can't imagine it appealing much to anyone below the age of 70. It offers a stale, rather than nostalgic, whiff of brilliantine and moth-eaten antimacassars.
Stagey fluff, yes, but old romantics will spare a sigh for the fairytale fade-out.
Cast: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciarán Hinds, Clare Clifford, Sarah Kants, Shirley Henderson, Lee Pace, Mark Strong Director: Bharat Nalluri Summary: When her gruff demeanor costs her yet another nanny position, desperate Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) wangles a job as the assistant of an aspiring
August 7, 2009
Super Reviewer
The movie has almost no plot complications or suspenseful moments, yet I love it SO MUCH! It's a floating, pattering, whirling confection of a movie, and Amy Adams fits snugly inside Delysia Lafosse. I think she can have a tendency to be pigeonholed into the ingenue role, but she seizes anything that is thrown at her
March 8, 2008Super Reviewer
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Pictures: Wes Anderson films
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Trailer: The legend continues!
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