An engaging yet desperately generic feel-good dramedy, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day doesn’t demonstrate any drastically unique ideas. At least, however, it also doesn’t do anything overwhelmingly faulty. Probably accruing few harsh objurgations, the film will also likely encounter few words of enormous praise. Attempting to be old-fashioned and with impossibly ridiculous socialite drama, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is not so much dissonant as it is simply without a unique tune.

Promptly finding herself jobless, homeless and with only a single outfit to her name, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) cunningly snags a business card that leads her to the home of Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). Posing as a social secretary, she begins to patch together the relationships of the promiscuous Delysia, while discovering a bit of romance herself. Set in London right before the start of World War II, Miss Pettigrew takes a chance and has a chaotic day as she is thrust into the dizzying world of high society milieu.

The flirtatious Delysia is caught in a love polygon with the poor “Mr. Right”, Michael (Lee Pace), the demanding and stern Nick (Mark Strong) and the Tom Jones party animal Phil (Tom Payne). “Men are so untrusting. I can’t think why,” she casually mentions. Delysia is a whimsical and weak social climber who doesn’t know what she wants, but craftily uses her innocent eyes and curvaceous figure to always stay in the high-class circle. Amy Adams is always delightful to watch in a role that mirrors the playful ignorance of her character in Disney’s Enchanted, but her static immaturity only soaks up laughs at the beginning.

Frances McDormand excellently portrays the relationship-doctor Pettigrew, a strong lead that we feel constantly makes the right decisions, even when they initially go astray. She’s down-and-out and on the wrong side of luck, even though at the outset it appears that her inability to cope with her clients’ quirks is purely her fault. First appearing disheveled and as “Oliver Twist’s mom” as described by the fashionable Delysia, Guinevere undergoes quite a flattering transformation that allows her to momentarily fit in with her wealthy employer. But her good-natured and humble soul is not as easily disguised, drawing attention by the insincere conflict Edythe (Shirley Henderson) who is out to blackmail her, and the reasonable Joe (Ciaran Hinds from There Will Be Blood) who is attracted to her uncommon real-woman genuineness. “Love is not a game”, she cries. Unfortunately in this film, it is.

All of the characters in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day are about as unrealistic as the whimsical Giselle, the cheery role Amy Adams played in last year’s Enchanted. It may be set during uncertain times, but each of the light-hearted characters dances about as if this were a gay musical. Miss Pettigrew herself is only partially grounded in reality, and even her offbeat success with romance is more than the average adult could bear. During the fluttery conclusion, everyone’s true emotions come pouring out during a sad song, and this unlikely rehash of Amelie drops most of its charm. Even with the old-fashioned “The End” splashed onto the screen, Miss Pettigrew is anything but unpredictable.

- Mike Massie

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