Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (Review)

Ever had a mouthful of PopRocks? The tart red candies turn into a whole party in your mouth, like tiny fireworks popping away. The human equivalent just might be Amy Adams. The ascendant princess of the smash romantic comedy Enchanted and the endearing chatterbox of Junebug returns to theaters as a highstrung actress. Her new character Delysia Lafosse wants to be a star and she’s sleeping her way to her big break in the period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day.  That character description probably doesn’t sound as “cute” as you’ve expected from the adorable new star, but it’s accurate. But then, PopRocks seem fairly nondescript until they start exploding in your mouth.

Adams plays Delysia as a series of strung together mini explosions of varying natures: sexual, romantic, careerist. But first we spend a few humiliating minutes with the title character, Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) who will change Delysia’s life. Miss Pettigrew, all alone in the world, hasn’t had much luck with employers –she’s just been fired again. She’s been branded as a “difficult” governess by her own agency. Starving and destitute she cheats her way into the scatterbrained Lafosse’s employ as a “social secretary” … in modern parlance we’d call it a personal assistant. Delysia isn’t famous or over employed but her life is a dizzying mess. Self control and common sense entirely elude her. She’s juggling three men: a possibly dangerous restaurateur (Stardust’s Mark Strong) who provides her a swanky apartment, a theatrical producer’s son (the frisky Tom Payne) who she thinks will get her the lead role in a musical, and her accompanist and lover (Lee Pace from television’s Pushing Daisies). Her juggling act isn’t going so smoothly. She’s dropping balls. It’s clear from her very first scene with Pettigrew, written as a long zany bedroom farce that the dizzy Lafosse desperately needs her own governess. Miss Pettigrew’s simplicity and good character will prove a panacea.

Once past the audition/interview stage with the barely together actress, Miss Pettigrew becomes instantly embroiled in other messy lives. The is the type of film wherein if you see or hear about a character once, they’re sure to pop up later, explicity involved in the busy shenanigans.  In other words, this London has about twelve people in it and they’re all in Delysia’s orbit. And, wouldn’t you know it! Delysia’s friends, rivals, and lovers all spark to Miss Pettigrew’s straightening influence and wisdom, or at least seek to harness it for their own benefit. They all need a little of her no nonsense gravity and her lessons learned. She’s there to clean up their mess.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day doesn’t tred any new ground and it’s completely absurdist fantasy in that “happily ever after” way of separating true love clearly from all pretenders, but it has its moments. Frances McDormand provides a welcome calm center for the film and her makeover from frizzy haired starving mess to handsome stylish woman is nicely underplayed. Eventually the film slows down for Lee Pace and Amy Adams make beautiful music together. Literally. He’s on piano and they sing a surprisingly moving duet.  But the standout in the cast is surely the familiar British actress Shirley Henderson (Yes, Bridget Jones Diary, Marie Antoinette) as Edythe Dubarry. She’s ostensibly the villain of this farce but the tiny actress with the memorably high-pitched voice refuses to play it that simply. She’s a bit of a shock to the movie’s system as she connives to hold on to her fiancé, a successful lingerie designer played by Ciarin Hands, even though she doesn’t love him. The film isn’t deep enough to embrace Henderson’s more discomfiting notes, but she challenges its featherweight melodies.

Director Bharat Nalluri (The Crow III) keeps the pace jaunty for all of the films 92 minutes as Miss Pettigrew improvises her way through Delysia’s risqué life while finding fresh personal joy of her own. Oh you knew that would happen: it's in the title! The production (designed by Sarah Greenwood, recently Oscar nominated for Atonement) is pleasing to the eye as well. The brisk pace and good looks of this romp mask two problems: the leads. Both Francis McDormand and Amy Adams are terrific actresses in general but these characters are too simply drawn or too manically performed.  Miss Pettigrew as written is unfortunately a bit of a cipher. She’s a Mary Poppins type without the extra kick of magic tricks or even that endearing underlay of holier-than-thou bitchiness that Julie Andrews sold so well with that classic film.  McDormand does what she can with her frumpy ex-governess and she smartly underplays to balance out the frantic movie, but that comes at a price. Pettigrew isn’t a truly memorable character to begin with and once underplayed, it’s not much to carry a whole film with. McDormand is appealing and she makes it work but a lot rides on her co-star to enliven the proceedings.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day  isn’t exactly an effortless comedy. Or at least it isn’t for Amy Adams. You can feel her sweating her way through her long and exasperating introduction scene. To be fair, a lot more is asked of her as a performer than anyone else in the picture. As the plot thickens Adams recovers from the early awkwardly manic comedy to add other notes but she’s so busy “performing” throughout that the character goes missing. Is she sending up Marilyn Monroe? Does she know what makes Delysia tick? The innocent nympho act isn’t performed without considerable exertion. It’s pure conjecture to assume that this is what was asked of her  but one can imagine the behind the scenes request “Do what you did in Enchanted and Junebug only faster and with more physicality!” One wishes she hadn’t been quite so willing to sing the same songs for her supper. The film even has the gall to ask her to make the face of a small woodland animal. Yes, you’ve seen that ultra specific quirk before. Nobody who saw Junebug didn’t fall in love with the actress when her character’s meercat obsession led to a blink and you’ll miss it imitation at the family table. It was a moment that felt completely organic to the character and spontaneous. Miss Pettigrew coarsely asks for a repeat. Not once but twice. The actress should’ve declined. Amy Adams is unquestionably talented but early detractors, who are beginning to question her range, will find ammunition here. It’s probably time for an against type performance, lest she end up a novelty act. It would be a shame if the intuitive actress we fell for in Junebug became a performing seal.

Which brings us back to the disposable joy of candy.  PopRocks are a ton of fun in small doses. But nobody is fooled into thinking they’re a well-balanced meal. Amy Adams is definitely good for giggles. She certainly pops onscreen. But is that all there is to her? Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day doesn’t think to look for more.