Saturday, September 13, 2008

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Then She Found Me

I recently watched these two female transformation movies. Frances McDormand plays Miss Pettigrew an out of work nanny/personal secretary who is hired by Amy Adam's Delycia and straightens out her crazy life while fixing her own -- all in one day! It's kinda sweet and I find Amy Adam buoyant sweetness irresistible. Since I love period pieces I enjoyed this s1940s slice of life and one of the three beaus of Delycia is especially fetching, the cute Lee Pace of Pushing Daisies. This movie is a farce, I hear. But what is a farce, I ask myself. So I looked it up. A farce is "a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character." That fits.

Then She Found Me is not quite so light and airy. It has great actors, Bette Midler, Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick. The plot is interesting, but something just goes amiss, maybe it is Hunt's dour presence on screen, or maybe it's her desperation to have a baby, or maybe it's just a screenplay that doesn't hang together. I don't know, but great actors does not a good movie make.

1 comment:

Jen said...

I haven't seen Pettigrew, but I did just recently watch Then She Found Me. I do agree with your review to a certain extent. I give it a slightly higher rating for the Firth factor alone. I loved him in this one!