Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Theatre) - Jennie & Matt

This film chronicles a hectic day for a recently out of work nanny who finds herself waltzed into the breezy life of an up-and-coming actress. Miss Pettigrew (Frances Mcdormand) fibs her way into becoming Delysia Lafosse’s (Amy Adams) social secretary after being fired from her previous nanny job. We are directed to believe that Delysia’s life is a whirlwind of men, sex, and stardom, but we are shown that this is all a lie and she is actually a poor girl from New York just trying to make in this world. This farce leads to a love quadrilateral that ends with the guy with the heart of gold getting Amy Adams. And on the way Miss Pettigrew finds love, the ability to smoke cigars, and a bite to eat.

If this all sounds very simple and somewhat stale I can understand that. But this movie was going for that 1960’s whimsy. It felt very much like Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) to me, in that oddly paced, wacky-love-winning-the-day kind of way. The problem is it didn’t go far enough. Back in 2003 Renee Zellweger and Ewan Mcgregor starred in a 1960s style farce called Down with Love (2003). This film took that style and ran with it, campy couches and all. I feel like Miss Pettigrew was attempting to compete with this but didn’t fully commit. Where Down with Love had the lame puns and the absurd misunderstandings, Miss Pettigrew wanted to find a middle ground, maybe to make it more relevant to today’s audience. This, however, makes Miss Pettigrew feel just a little bit stale and not fully confident with what it was trying to do.

I also feel compelled to add that Jennie, my wife, thoroughly enjoyed this movie. She particularly enjoyed Lee Pace, the entirely delightful lead from Pushing Daisies. She believes him to be her new celebrity crush. I'm not entirely sure how this effects the film, but I will admit he is particularly dreamy in this film, so there's that.

5 out of 10: A fun film, but Down with Love would scratch the itch in a much more satisfying way if you had both to choose from.