Last Friday, S and I went to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, based on the book of the same title by Winifred Watson (which also happens to be on the list of 1001 Books!). I haven't read the book yet, but OMG, what an adorable film! The funny bits were perfectly balanced with the emotional, "aww" bits to create an entirely warm and fuzzy, make-you-feel good film. Amy Adams is precious as Delysia (Seriously, what kind of a name is Delysia? I'm going to name my first born daughter Delysia, God help the girl.); Frances McDormand is predictably perfect in the role of Miss Pettigrew; Lee Pace is catch-you-off-guard hot (I know he's got that innocent cuteness in Pushing Daisies, even bordering on the yummy, but who knew that he could sing?); and Shirley Henderson (of Moaning Myrtle fame) gave probably my favorite performance of the entire film as Edythe Dubarry, lingerie fashion designer.
The story takes place over the course of one day (hence the title), as Miss Pettigrew is unceremoniously released from her latest governess position. The agency determines that she is unfit for any of their customers, so she basically steals a customer from them: one Delysia Lafosse. The confusion ensues when it is discovered that Delysia is not looking for a governess, but a social secretary; someone to handle her day to day affairs and to help keep her 3 boyfriends from finding out about each other. The movie goes from here, as Miss Pettigrew weaves her magical spell over everyone, until we get to our happily-ever-after. Ah, but who's happily-ever-after? Miss Pettigrew's? Delysia's? And if it is Delysia, which of her 3 suitors will it be? That I can't tell you. You must go see it for yourself to find out. All I can say is that I highly recommend this movie to everyone!
**this film isn't based on a book, but it was so good, I felt it deserved to be mentioned here**
Yesterday, I had been having an extraordinarily crap day, so I decided that I needed a little something to perk myself up, and Penelope just happened to be playing at the local movie theater, and Tuesdays they run their movies at $3.50. Did I mention that the scrumptious James McAvoy stars in Penelope? At that point, a combination of James McAvoy, popcorn and M&M's seemed to me like the perfect way to fix my mood, and I couldn't have been more right. Penelope had looked like a cute movie but it surprised me by turning out to be an extremely well-crafted film, with a very good lesson to be learned at the end.
Christina Ricci stars in the lead role of Penelope, the first girl to be born into her well-off family in generations. This also means that she is the bearer of a family curse; that the first girl to be born into the family will be cursed to look like a pig until she is accepted by one of her own. I don't want to give away too much of the film, but it turns into not only a love story, but also a journey of self-discovery. Reese Witherspoon plays the role of Penelope's friend, Annie, and Catherine O'Hara play Penelope's overly-loving mother. For something that could have been just a bit of fluff, Penelope really surprised my by how well it told it's story. Definitely worth going to see.
4 comments:
Penelope was a wonderful film. I saw it a week or so ago with a friend. Loved it! Much much better then I thought it was going to be. =)
We're both waiting for it to go to the ghetto theatre (nickname my friends and I have for a local cinema that only charges $2 all movies, all the time).
Actually, that's pretty funny - that's also what my friends and I used to call the theater here that ran the cheap movies until it closed down.
I'm READING this book right now and loving it. So glad that the movie sounds good.
I'm glad to know the book is good, I really should go pick up a copy sometime. The movie is coming out on DVD on August 19, 2008 and I can't recommend it enough!
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