MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY

US/UK, 2007, 92 minutes, Colour.
Frances Mc Dormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Mark Strong, Tom Paine, Christina Cole, Stephanie Cole.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.

I suppose there are some Miss Pettigrews somewhere in England today but the name sounds so much like a name from the past, especially when Miss Pettigrew’s first name is Guinevere. In fact, she is the central character to a novel that was very popular in the late 1930s where the book is set. The author, Winifred Watson, stopped writing in 1943 to bring up a family and died in 2002 having seen her book of sixty years earlier be reprinted and experience a new success. Now, here is the film version.

I wished I could have liked and enjoyed it as much as so many reviewers and the public have. It is very well made and acted but it belongs to a period and to a world that can sometimes be more than mildly irritating when portrayed on stage or screen (like Being Julia with Annette Bening some years ago), the enclosed world of the theatre with its petty intrigues, its wealth and snobbery. It is the world of Noel Coward comedies, drawing rooms, dressing rooms and brittlely witty repartee. It is a London of the 1930s.

What makes this one different is that Miss Pettigrew does not really belong in this world at all. She is an impoverished governess who lost her fiancé in action in World War I and is dreading the oncoming, which is imminent in 1939 where this story is now set, of the next World War. She speaks her mind – which loses her jobs from the obnoxious rich and exasperates the manager of the employment service. She has to sleep out at railway stations and eat at soup kitchens.

The day of the title is the one where she takes a card from the desk of the employment agency and hurries to she knows not what – in the form of an American actress with the impossible name of Delysia Lafosse who is as scatty as they come, is involved with the son of a West End producer, in a flat owned by a London night club owner where she sings and is in love (though career hopes make her blind and selfish towards it) with her pianist. It is up to Miss Pettigrew to juggle all the farcical aspects of this when they visit. The next thing is that she improbably attends a fashion show where she recognises a shop owner, Edythe, whom she saw with another man – but Delysia wants her to persuade Edythe’s lingerie designer fiancé, Joe, not to cancel the engagement.

There is a lavish party where Miss Pettigrew achieves all this. But, a the nightclub, during an air raid drill, she persuades Delysia (really Sally) to do the right thing, charms Joe who learns the truth about his fiancée – but Miss Pettigrew goes back to the railway station.

Of course, it does not end there. This is a Cinderella story with Miss Pettigrew as both a Cinderella herself while being a benign fairy godmother.

Frances Mc Dormand, clipped British accent and all, makes the film as Miss Pettigrew counterbalancing Amy Adams’ ditzyness as Delysia. Shirley Henderson is a mean Edythe. Mark Strong is the nightclub owner and Lee Pace the pianist. Ciaran Hinds brings some dignity as Joe.

1.A period piece? 1939, characters, situations? As seen in the retrospective of the 21st century?

2.A 1938 popular novel? Set a year later with the outlook of World War Two? The re-creation of the period, one day in Miss Pettigrew’s life? The war looming, as seen in the newspaper headlines, talk, the planes flying over, the young people applauding the planes, the air raid drill, the shelters? The end of an era?

3.The remembering of World War One, the older people, the griefs, the deaths? Guinevere’s fiancé? All Joe’s school friends?

4.The structure of the film: over the one day, the focus on Miss Pettigrew?, on Delysia? Fortunes and misfortunes? Change?

5.The film as a Cinderella story? Guinevere and Delysia as Cinderella? Guinevere as the fairy godmother?

6.The opening, Miss Pettigrew and the voice, her being sacked, humiliated, the woman sacking her glimpsed at the window, the contrast between the arrogant rich and the poor? Miss Pettigrew? and her clothes, not being paid? The clash with the prisoner, her case, her fright, losing everything? Her going to the shelter, the soup kitchen?

7.Her going to the agency? The discussions, her past jobs? Her criticism of the employer drinking? Miss Holt and her severity? The card and her taking it?

8.Going to Delysia’s flat, Delysia as scatty, discovering Philip in the bed, the discussions, getting him to go? Tidying up? Nick’s phone call, his impression, her smoking the cigar, her ousting him? Delysia and her relying on her? The meeting with Michael and realising that it was he who bumped into her? Going to the fashion show, meeting Edythe? The ladies, her clothes? Going to the shop, Edythe fitting her out? Edythe and her remembering her face – and Guinevere seeing her with the boyfriend, observing her?

9.The fashion show, Edythe and her presence, the women, Joe and his designing lingerie, engagement to Edythe, his compliment on Miss Pettigrew’s? scarf? Her dropping the food on his shoe? Vanishing?

10.Delysia and her reaction? Her decision for Philip, to become his mistress, wanting the part in the West End musical? Nick and his flat, his using her, singing in his club? Michael, in prison, his love for her, the tickets for New York?

11.Delysia and her scattiness, her true story, her name, her poverty? Her character and surface, gossip, Edythe? Beginning to rely on Guinevere for the day? The party, her advice, the actress sneering at her, Philip and his commitment, her getting the role?

12.The party and the ambiguity, Edythe and her advice, Joe and the engagement on again? The talking with Joe, the regrets about the past?

13.Going to the club, Nick and his welcome to the club, Delysia singing, Michael playing the piano, the Cole Porter music, the plaintive song? Her being upset – but covering it up? The air raid drill? Talking with Guinevere under the piano, authentic talk, wisdom? Seeing Philip kissing the other girl, Nick confronting Michael, the fight? Delysia and Michael deciding to go to America?

14.Guinevere, her waiting outside, talking with Joe, Edythe and the truth, Guinevere not betraying her? Joe wanting honesty and breaking with her?

15.Guinevere going to the station, the apple being swept up? Joe arriving, the proposal? The fairytale ending?

16.A glimpse of a 1930s world, bright young things, superficiality, the war impending? Authenticity and integrity?