Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Widescreen & Full Screen Edition)
by Bharat Nalluri
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DVD details
Actor: Amy Adams, Frances McDormand, Lee Pace, Shirley Henderson, Tim PotterDirector: Bharat Nalluri
Brand: Universal
Cinematographer: John DeBorman
Composer: Paul Englishby
Conductor: Paul Englishby
Editor: Barney Pilling
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-19
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Widescreen & Full Screen Edition)
DVD Review: 24 hours
Summary: 5 Stars
Love and life have bypassed middle-aged Guinevere Pettigrew, who is the quintessential English governess, newly unemployed. Beautiful but ditsy American singer Delysia Lafosse is doing her utmost to land a plum role on the London stage. When Guinevere approaches Delysia in hopes of a job, opposites attract, and it isn't long before Guinevere sets her mind to helping her find true happiness. And to eating as much as she possibly can before this bubble bursts.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is filled with humor and music, as Guinevere steers Delysia through her tumultuous day. Complications abound. The governess smokes a cigar, undergoes a makeover, and falls prey to blackmail from an unscrupulous social climber. Delysia, deaf to Guinevere's wisdom, makes all the wrong decisions. Will Delysia ever find true happiness? Will Miss Pettigrew?
Frances McDormand is outstanding in the title role, while Amy Adams reprises her wide-eyed, golly-gee persona from Enchanted. Ciaran Hinds and Lee Pace are also well-cast. Pacing is quick and direction tight, and the visuals of the glamorous milieu of pre-WWII London are elegant and sophisticated. The bouncy, 1930's era soundtrack perfectly sets the tone. A frothy romantic comedy with heart, highly recommended.
DVD Review: Fast moving, fun, charming
Summary: 5 Stars
A delightful film with some great acting. I love McDormand and Ciaran Hinds together. Very amusing, witty, charming, with a wonderful lightness of touch and really terrific acting to capture the characters. Thoroughly enjoyable fun. Treat yourself to this feelgood film.DVD Review: Two great actresses in a movie you may have missed
Summary: 4 Stars
Frances McDormand and Amy Adams ably provide an hour and a half of charm and wit in this stylish comic drama adapted from the 1938 light classic novel. Ms. McDormand plays a dowdy, unemployed nanny with personality issues who falls into the glamorous world of theater and fashion after a bit of desperate subterfuge to land a job. Of course, Ms. McDormand's Miss Pettigrew character turns out to have the exactly right combination of solid values and feet-on-the-ground common sense that her new employer, Ms. Adams' flightly actress/singer character Delysia LaFosse, needs in her life at that moment. And that was fine; predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing if the predictable developments are satisfying.
But what's nice is that Delysia's world also gives something back to Ms. Pettigrew, as a little style and excitement is just what the lonely spinster needs. Furthermore, Miss Pettigrew soon sees that, aside from possibly helping Delysia make the right decisions about her own romantic life, she just might attain a great romance of her own.
While there's some predicability in the plot, the flavor of the film is anything but. At times it's old fashioned and plays out like a 1930's screwball comedy- energetic and sassy, but ultimately polite- and other times it's bawdy and sexy and quite daring. There's even possibly some level of sexual tension and attraction between Ms. Pettigrew and Delysia, though the charge I detected between them is definitely subtle, and maybe based more on an admiration of each other's strengths than a hidden mutual desire. But each viewer can make his or her own determination on that score.
"Miss Pettigrew Lives For a day" features a widescreen print of the film on one side of the DVD and a fullscreen version on the other side. A variety of special features about the making of the film and the novel on which it is based are spread out over both sides of the disc. The film looks and sounds wonderful on the standard DVD I viewed.
The film's scenery, music, top-notch acting, and engaging story of two women helping each other to find peace, happiness, and their respective places in the world all contribute to making "Miss Pettigrew lives For a Day" an easy recommendation.
DVD Review: fantastic romantic comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is only the second film where I really paid any attention to Frances McDormand's work. As I have begun to work my way through her films, I find she was in a number of others I liked, but usually in a supporting role. I first saw her as a lead in Fargo, like most other people. Both her role as Marge Gunderson and the interviews in the extras on the DVD got me very interested in her and her work, hence my current journey through her films.
Miss Pettigrew (McDormand) is a down-on-her-luck governess in 1939 London, who by a twist of fate finds herself thrust into the "social set" of the times by way of ill-gotten employment with rising starlet, Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams). The entire film takes place over a 24 hour period as Miss Pettigrew tries to navigate and survive the emotional waters of this turbulent social scene on the brink of World War II.
The pace of the film just about leaves one breathless, but pulls one along in a way that few films can. The cast is outstanding, and the on screen chemistry between them is of an extraordinarily high quality. The scenes between McDormand and Ciaran Hinds are particularly amazing. I have seldom seen the power and intensity that these two can create with just silence and facial expressions. The alley scene near the end fairly scintillates!
Amy Adams (LaFosse) and McDormand also have incredible energy together, and their scenes, though reminiscent of the work of Lucille Ball and others, are completely fresh and intense. Lee Pace, Mark Strong, Shirley Henderson, and Tom Payne add their considerable talents as well. (I do wish they had included a gag reel, as it was unfair to mention in the featurette how funny Stephanie Cole (Miss Holt) was between takes without letting us see for ourselves.)
The sets are great and the music wonderful (if you like swing, which I do).
The comedy is madcap, punctuated by deeply emotional interludes, and this is simply great film making any way you look at it. I got it from Neflix and kept watching it over and over (twelve times at last count), "snake-fascinated," you might say (watch the movie, you'll get it). I finally broke down and bought a copy so Netflix could have theirs back.
This is a great film that I feel is destined to become a classic. I think it is Oscar time for McDormand again, and probably some of the others as well. A movie this good is a very, very rare thing. Everyone involved should be extremely proud, Oscar or not.
By way of indulging my current infatuation with McDormand, I have watched this back to back with Laurel Canyon (yes, several times), just to enjoy the polarity (as in 180 degrees) of the characters she plays in each. There is just something about her that is soooo compelling.......sigh...
Get it. Watch it. Love it. They don't make movies any better than this. Very highly recommended.
DVD Review: Surprisingly Amazing!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Loved this movie. It brings up the topic or thought that one day truly can change your life!! Frances and Amy are an amazing and hilarious combination together.
Description of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Widescreen & Full Screen Edition)
Academy Award? nominee Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Academy Award? winner Frances McDormand star in this charming comedy about finding a new life and a new love, all in one day. When Miss Pettigrew (McDormand) stumbles upon the chance to become the new "social secretary" to glamorous high-society singer and actress Delysia Lafosse (Adams), she seizes the opportunity despite being totally out of her element. Swept up into the glamorous whirl of high society, it's all Miss Pettigrew can do to keep up with Delysia as she juggles her lovelife and career in this "delightful champagne cocktail of a comedy!" (Leah Rozen, People).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. Frances McDormand stars as Miss Pettigrew, whose inability to hold a job in London as a governess compromises her well-being shortly before England's entry in World War II. Finessing her way into a position as social secretary to a young, American golddigger and singer named Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), the starving Miss Pettigrew finds herself at the center of a whirlwind that is her new employer's life. Hemmed in by lovers and suitors--including a young, theatrical producer (Tom Payne) looking to cast one of his pleasing girlfriends in a plum role; a creepy nightclub owner (Mark Strong) in whose flat Delysia lives; and a pianist (Lee Pace) who genuinely loves her--Delysia needs a map to figure out how to navigate through life. Miss Pettigrew, who suffered a loss during WWI that she does not speak of, nudges the na?ve songstress toward wise decisions. But she is at the mercy of Delysia's formidable friend (Shirley Henderson), who knows the truth about her impoverished state and is engaged to a much older man (Ciar?n Hinds). The latter, a fellow of substance who seems to be meandering through life, falls instantly for the soulful Miss Pettigrew. 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. --Tom Keogh
Get to Know the cast from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
 Amy Adams |  Frances McDormand |  Lee Pace |
Beyond Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day on DVD
 Read the Book |  Get the Soundtrack |  More from Focus Features |
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