Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" (Focus) is a colorful though uneven comedy set in London concerning prim English governess Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), who, after being unfairly fired, decides to pursue a position about which she overhears at her employment agency.

She shows up at the apartment of flighty American actress and singer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), who, it turns out, is not looking for a governess but a social secretary as Miss Pettigrew discovers when she finds one of Delysia's lovers sleeping naked in the bedroom (brief rear nudity).

Though shaken by this misunderstanding and anxious to flee, Miss Pettigrew soon falls under the sway of the endearingly addle-brained Delysia, who, in turn, finds the dowdy but pragmatic lady to be just the ticket in sorting out her complicated love life.

There's Michael (Lee Pace), Delysia's longtime musical accompanist; Nick (Mark Strong), a brutish nightclub owner who's bankrolling her deluxe digs; and Phil (Tom Payne), the budding West End producer whom Miss Pettigrew found in bed.

Delysia insists on Miss Pettigrew getting a fashion makeover and brings her to a salon run by her shallow friend, Edythe (Shirley Henderson), who recognizes Miss Pettigrew, having recently observed her in a soup-kitchen line while she herself was in a romantic clinch with someone other than her fiance, prominent fashion designer Joe (Ciaran Hinds).

Miss Pettigrew has met Joe at a fashion show -- and the two feel a warm connection -- but Edythe's threat to expose her, coupled with Miss Pettigrew's own natural reticence, keeps the fated-to-be-mated pair apart.

Delysia, meanwhile, can't decide among her three beaux, but hopes to make the match that best furthers her career. Phil can give her a part in a new show. Nick can showcase her in his nightclub and keep her living in high style. And struggling but devoted Michael can offer her true love back home in America.

Director Bharat Nalluri takes a more farcical approach than necessary in adapting Winifred Watson's 1938 English novel and the result is neither charming nor clever enough to make the first rank.

It's also rather more blunt about Delysia's love life than the aborted 1940s' Universal version with Billie Burke (Glinda, the Good Witch) could ever have been.

McDormand plays her prim Brit most convincingly, while Adams, channeling Marilyn Monroe, evinces customary charm. The plush '30s designs and London location shooting are further plusses.

Whatever its deficiencies, the story underscores the value of seizing second chances, discerning what's important in life, and being true to one's finer self, with the blithely amoral Delysia ultimately making the right decision.

The film contains brief rear and partial nudity, implied nonmarital affairs, some innuendo, moderate swearing and brief profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops