Monday, September 1, 2008

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - DVD Review

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (**1/2) - Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson and Mark Strong.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.

I was looking through things and saw this title, and for a second I'd forgotten I'd just seen a couple days before. It's so light and fluffy and inconsequential, it disappears from the memory like water drops on a hot sidewalk. Most of the cast acts like they're in a farce, so much that I decided it would have been more entertaining to see as a play. This is ideal dinner theater.

Frances McDormand is a 1930's governess, fired from her agency, who snags a client in a spoiled socialite juggling rich men, trying to advance her career as an actress. It almost got made into a movie in the 1940's for Billie Burke (Glenda from 1939's The Wizard of Oz). I can see that.

I liked seeing Ciaran Hinds in a romantic role. I liked seeing McDormand and Adams act off each other. It's deeply, distractingly predictable, and sometimes the high-energy playing-to-the-balcony style got on my nerves, especially when so much time is spent in the apartment. So it was okay. But it would work better as a play.

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