This is one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies.

Based on a 1938 Winifred Watson novel, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a colorful story about lives stalled in middle age but kick-started again by the follies of youthful lovers all around. Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse. Starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams and featuring Tom Payne, Mark Strong, Lee Pace, Shirley Henderson, and Ciarán Hinds. “Full of Art Deco trappings and paced with a vintage, screwball comedy energy, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is like watching a contemporary version of a Hollywood classic.” (From IMDb and Amazon)

Within the first three minutes of this film, our main character, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew, loses her job as a “governess of last resort,” doesn’t get the week’s wages she’s owed, loses all her worldly belongings, and is denied even the most rudimentary of comforts when the bowl of soup from the soup kitchen is knocked from her hands before she can eat it.

The daughter of a vicar, who lost her one chance at marriage and security when the man she loved was killed in World War I, Miss Pettigrew has a hard time keeping a job as a governess because she wants to live by the morals with which she grew up—and holds the people she works for to the same standards (while losing a little girl in the park for six hours and inciting two little boys to attack a man because she thought he looked like a German spy). As the head of the employment agency tries to tell her,

“Our clients don’t adapt to suit your needs, Miss Pettigrew,
you adapt to them.”

Desperate for a job (and something to eat), Miss Pettigrew resorts to subterfuge and swipes the card of a client and goes to the very fancy flat on her own. There, she meets Delysia Lafosse—who, in a matter of moments, turns Miss Pettigrew’s entire world upside down. It isn’t just a mother too fond of the sherry Miss Pettigrew has to deal with now, but an aspiring actress trying to balance relationships with three different men—talk about not living up to Miss Pettigrew’s standards!

Sucked into Delysia’s world, Miss Pettigrew finds herself making excuses and alibis for Delysia so she can keep all three men ignorant of each other (as much as possible). But when Miss Pettigrew meets Michael (Lee Pace, who could have used a lot more dialect coaching for his accent), she realizes that Delysia has a chance at what she herself has lost and never hopes to find again: true love.

“I am not an expert on love. I am an expert on the lack of love, Delysia, and that is a fate from which I wish most fervently to save you.”

This is a two-strand romance: not only do we get Delysia’s exploits as she figures out which man she wants to be with, but we get the much more mature, quiet, and understated (and, for me, heart pounding) romance between Miss Pettigrew and lingerie designer Joe Bloomfield (Ciaran Hinds). Granted, I already have a soft spot for Hinds, due to his portrayal of my favorite Austen hero, Captain Frederick Wentworth, in my favorite Austen film adaptation, Persuasion 1995. Maybe it’s just another sign I’m getting older, but it was their characters’ finally finding someone they could relax and be themselves with that made the movie for me.

Costumes
The late Depression-era/pre-World War II costuming is brilliant—especially the lingerie in the fashion show scene. When we first meet Guinevere Pettigrew, her physical appearance makes it obvious she hasn’t had access to disposable income for quite some time—if ever. The physical transformation that McDormand’s character makes through the film, especially in the makeover scene, is marvelous. And yet even though she goes from a duckling to a swan, who she is never changes—she only allows it to shine through for everyone else to see and love.

If you have not yet seen this film, you need to, right away! Amazon has it available on DVD for only $5.99, and it’s well worth the purchase price! And it has a fabulous soundtrack, as well.

“Might I be old-fashioned?”
“Indeed you are. And all the better for it.”