barryclifton Perhaps I am a throw-back to an earlier era, but this film is in my top 5 favorites of all time. The romance & glamour provided by the beautiful but ditsy Delysia, contrasted against the frumpy and hitherto straight-laced Miss Pettigrew is flawless. This well matched pair of remarkable characters, played by even more remarkable actors, had me from the opening scene. Their coupling rivals any traditionally male buddy film I can think of. While her beauty and grace are magnificent to behold, Amy Adams portrayal of the "dumb blonde" character rivals that of the original, Gracie Allen. Frances McDormand's English "ladies maid down on her luck" brings to mind the legendary tramp, Charlie Chaplin. The magnitude of emotion she conveys with a single glance is magical. And that's just the female leads! The supporting characters have full, rich lives that, especially considering the absurdly deep pool of talent portraying them, could support a full length feature of their own.

pamela-150 I adore this movie. Every time I see it, I fall in love with the characters, the performers, the music, and staging all over again. Amy Adams continues to amaze, but Francis McDormand is so utterly charming that I can't take my eyes off her. Ciaran Hinds and Lee Pace as the love interests hit just the right notes. But my best praise goes to the director, Bharat Nalluri, who directs it like a stage play and sells it like a movie. This film is so inspiring, chic, and self effacing that I am putting it in my personal cue so on bad days, I can watch it and feel inspired again. See it if you like bold panache, lyrical music, big band sounds, handsome acting, and sumptuous decor. Merci!

Steven Torrey MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY is about transformation. Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams) is in reality Sarah Grubb from the Pittsburg Steal worker's Grubb. Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand, social secretary, is in reality homeless tramp. And Joe Blumfield (Claran Hinds) would prefer to be what he really is: a sock designer rather than designer of lingerie. Sound familiar? A STAR IS BORN (1954 with James Mason and Judy Garland) is about Esther Blodgett being transformed into Vicki Lester. And that movie itself is about Frances Gumm being transformed into Judy Garland. MY FAIR LADY, Liza Doolittle transformed into a lady who speaks the King's English and not Cockney. It is about OEDIPUS--a book about adoption--as Betty Jean Lifton explores in her autobiography TWICE BORN: MEMOIRS OF AN ADOPTED DAUGHTER.And the central question to these transformations: how different would I be without the act that transformed me? Suppose Miss Pettigrew married her beau in 1914 and lived in that cottage with garden? Instead her beau dies in the mud of France in the Great War. And 25 years later, on the eve of WW II, she is a homeless tramp, not living in a cottage with a garden. Miss Pettigrew wants to save Delysia LaFosse from making a mistake that will transform her life into something unsatisfactory if she were to marry the wrong man, of the three men pursuing her. Only one of these men accept her for what and who she is: Sarah Grubb.(That is the core of the movie--Miss Pettigrew wanting to save Delysia from her own fate of an ill-advised marriage. But marrying the wrong person is not the same as losing a person to the fate of war. Here the logic fails. Unless, Miss Pettigrew was more in love with the idea of marrying a soldier off to war, then actually in love with the soldier--which is what the story line ends up silently implying.)This core of the movie--transformation--motivates the movie, motivates the characters. And it's why the audience responds as it does, because there is recognition that is a theme central to the human condition. It posits that transformation changes ineluctably and not in a direction which we would have chosen of our own volition. And the question that all people ask (all adoptees ask): how exactly would my life have been different,if I had not suffered this trauma, If I had not been adopted? And as always, the core to these transformations is about the seedy, the unpleasant, the trauma: whether it's war, or whether it's a sexual escapade that should not have occurred.In the end: Miss Lafosse chooses the right person, Joe Blumfield has found the person to be his wife in Miss Pettigrew, the person whom he has been looking for all his life.It's a charming movie with a serious core. Not a screwball comedy. Though it has hilarious moments. Miss Pettigrew lives for day so that she might live for an eternity,

Robert In 1939, when the book "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" was written, such films were cranked out by the gross. At the very best, they were directed by Howard Hawks, and they flowed along with easy wit and little time for the audience to question any plot weaknesses. At the worst, they were trite potboilers. Alas, this film apes the latter. It trots out every single "screwball romantic comedy" trope from "Dinner at Eight" to "Pillow Talk" without bringing a single new thing to the mix. So much for the plot.Amy Adams plays the equivalent of "Lorelei Lee" (and pastiches Carole Lombard and every other screwball blonde in cinematic history) turned up to eleven. She's madcap! She's ditzy! She just can't say no! Frances McDormand is a capable actress, but she attempts to conceal her faux British accent behind chewing her words, as if she's afraid to be heard clearly. So much for the two leads.With questionable acting, 2-dimensional characters and the flimsiest of all possible plots, the only thing that can save the film would be very deft direction. Alas, even that it lacks. It's always an indication of the weakness of a film when the director throws in "mood-setting music" in every scene. Such is the case here. Need the audience to get excited? Blare the rinky-dink jazz! Need them to try to care about this romance or that? Cue the sobbing strings! Heavy-handed? That doesn't even begin to describe it.There is only one group of people who could find this film appealing: women with a taste for "retro" styling whose cinematic standards have consistently been lowered to the basement floor. Anyone who appreciates sparkling, original romantic comedies will simply find it woefully lacking in every regard.