Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Review by Frederica Mathewes-Green | posted 3/07/2008
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Miss Guinevere Pettigrew does have quite a day. It begins on a blustery London morning in 1939, as Miss Pettigrew awakens on a bench in a London train station. She had lost her job as a governess the day before, and no job prospects are in sight. She gets a meal in a soup-line but it is knocked out of her hands; she collides with a stranger, and her suitcase spills across the sidewalk. With nothing left to lose, Miss Pettigrew forms the bold plan of trying to pass herself off as the applicant sent by an employment agency to be social secretary to nightclub singer and social luminary Delysia LaFosse. (The film is based on a 1938 novel which was reissued in England in 2000, making the author, Winifred Watson, a minor celebrity at 94.)
Amy Adams as Delysia LaFosse
But when Pettigrew arrives at the luxurious apartment, she finds Delysia distraught because Phil won't get out of bed. Pettigrew assures her that she has long experience with recalcitrant boys, and marches into the bedroom delivering a command to get up at once—then is surprised to find that Phil is in his twenties, and stark naked. Delysia is desperate to get Phil out of sight because her official lover, Nick, owner of the luxurious apartment as well as the nightclub where she sings, is on his way home. This farce-like situation demands from Miss Pettigrew dexterity, duplicity, and extremely quick thinking (when Nick confronts the two women with a cigar in an ashtray, Miss Pettigrew coolly lights it and starts puffing away). When the coast is finally clear, Delysia begs Miss Pettigrew to continue in the job. Miss Pettigrew agrees, but with some reservations; she notes that Delysia's life appears to be "fraught with moral complexity."
Miss Pettigrew is a wonderful character, and Frances McDormand is perfect in the part. If you can't place the name, you'll place the face: she was the pregnant police officer in Fargo (1996), who pursued a grisly murder case with good-natured, unflappable perseverance. (McDormand won an Oscar for that role, and has had 3 other Oscar nominations as well as winning dozens of other awards.) In portraying Miss Pettigrew she wisely avoids prissiness, disapproval, or a Poppins-like impenetrable shell. You could even say that she avoids comedy, though this is a film with an abundance of comic moments. The laugh lines belong to others; Miss Pettigrew just keeps going through the day doing what must be done, occasionally registering surprise but soldiering on, with winning resourcefulness and creativity. She is an utterly satisfying character, and she's portrayed by one of our best actresses.
Frances McDormand as Guinevere Pettigrew
So what's the down side? It's that Miss Pettigrew is the only character in the movie who has more than two dimensions. Amy Adams' Delysia is so silly and shallow that it's hard to care what happens to her, or why three lovers are fighting for her inch-deep heart. In contrast to McDormand's restraint, Adams skitters around, exclaiming "Jeepers!" and flapping pink silk sleeves trimmed with marabou. Amy Adams can be a better actress than this, so this fumble is due either the direction or to flaws in the part itself. The result is something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?—Miss Pettigrew is a real person, and Delysia is a toon.
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