CINEMA: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

Setting just the right tone with a period movie can be tricky; underplay your hand too much and the piece seems muted and slightly lifeless; overplay anything by even the slimmest of margins and it comes over as am-dram and false. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens here with a film that would like to be the next Mrs Henderson Presents, but is more like provincial theatre.

This book adaptation follows the fortunes of spinster nanny Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), who in 1939 finds herself without a position and penniless. But Miss P is nothing if not resourceful and she manages to blag her way into becoming the personal secretary for up-and-coming stage starlet Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). Having dealt with plenty of spoilt brats in her time, dealing with glamourpuss Delysia should be a doddle for Miss P, but even she baulks at her new mistress’s complicated lovelife including no less than three suitors (a nightclub owner, an actor, and a piano player). Then there’s the whirlwind of social events she simply must attend and suddenly, after twenty years in the nursery, Miss Pettigrew finds herself really living life to the full. But will her new existence allow her to have a love interest of her own, in the shape of fashion designer Joe (Ciaran Hinds) who just happens to be engaged to harpy socialite Edythe (Shirley Henderson)?

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