Amy Adams must be an aficionado on costume dramas with a certain fairy tale theme to them. Not too long ago, she starred in another one called "Enchanted" in which she carried her charm, elegance and uplifting talent to both films, she was the principal reason why "Enchanted" and "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day" so enjoyable to watch. The film is saturated with equal amounts of whimsical moments along with some well-intended romance. The Great Depression era London setting adds just the right amount offers a bittersweet, but yet touching moments of lightness making the settings less stressful. It's seems strangely odds for a story to have a romantic feel considering what time period this movie is set in. In spite of the decade of financial struggling and human suffering, "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day" succeeds to have a feel- good approach and make you sit through without a worry in the world. Unlike "Enchanted", this movie had a tad bit more adult themes to it. Sure there's no real violence or vulgarity in the film, there are some brief nude moments including some suggestive positions from Adams and Tom Payne does exploit his rear end but at least it was brief and was quickly covered up. In some ways the character of Miss Pettigrew can be a hybrid of two characters from the classic fairy tale Cinderella as both the girl sporting the glass slippers and the fairy godmother who turned the doubtful into something possible. Set in London during the Great Depression in its later stages and with war just around the corner along with the woes of poverty and unemployment. Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a poor soul who's a nanny with limited skills is among the many who are destitute striving for food and employment. She eats out of soup kitchens and sleeps in train depots. Good fortunes come her way as she steals a job application from her former agency and is offered a job as a social secretary though she misinterpreted as another nanny position. When she shows up at the door of singer/performer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams) she becomes perplexed. Nonetheless Miss Pettigrew gets adjusted to her position and becomes a commodity to her employer's overwhelming agenda and her equally harried life. There are three suitors who want to win her love. There's the nightclub owner Nick Calderelli (Mark Strong), there's the theatre producer Phil Goldman (Tom Payne) who would like to cast her in the lead role at the West End and then there's the penniless pianist ex- con Michael Pardue (Lee Pace). We all know who'll be the winner here. While Miss Pettigrew patches Delysia's situations, she's also caught in a love triangle of her own. She becomes smitten by a handsome, debonair lingerie designer named Joe Blomfield (Ciaran Hinds), but in her way is the stuck-up store owner named Edythe Dubarry (Shirley Henderson) There are two essential elements as to why this movie works on so many levels. For starters, the script was well executed by writer David McGee and Simon Beaufoy based off the novel of the same title by Winifred Watson. McGee and Beaufoy truly bring the characters to life as we are able to compare the advantages and disadvantages that both Miss Pettigrew and Delysia possess. Delysia lives the higher grounds of life flaunting everyday like it counts while Miss Petigrew remains grounded and low-key. They respect each other and form a certain bond like in the male versions of buddy movies. The other thing that works splendidly in this film were the performances. Every performer turned in a solid acting job and made their respected characters come to life. Adams was excellent as the energetic free-spirited actor singer while McDormand is very effective as the polar opposite. Lee Pace douses us with his likeness as the rightful underdog who gets the girl. Ciaran Hinds breaks away from villainous characters to play a more likable character which is quite refreshing. And Shirley Henderson is very wonderful in what could've been a one-dimensional bitchy character into making her with a dose of humanity. There's a lot to love about "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day". Keeps itself in an optimistic mindset from an era that was anything but, is very authentic with big band music and stunning costumes to fit the time period. It reflects serious humane issues like Miss Pettigrew helping her employer not fall in despair lie her. Adams steps up her game in her performance as always bringing life to her character. This truly is 90 minutes of time well spent.

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.

An important plot device in cinema is when a character goes through a change, whether on his/her own or through influence from an outside party. "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" features such a storyline. Frances McDormand plays Guinevere Pettigrew, an unemployed governess in 1930s London who goes to work for giggly, high-strung actress Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), who is in relationships with three men at once. Delysia introduces Guinevere to high society, but Guinevere senses something unfulfilled in Delysia. This probably won't be a one-way street after all.The movie is at once a nostalgia piece, but also reminding us of the conditions in England on the verge of WWII, and looking at the obvious phoniness of the high society lifestyle. Frances McDormand plays Miss Pettigrew to her fullest, as does Amy Adams as the ditsy Delysia. I can't believe that McDormand didn't get ANY award nominations for it. The movie hits all the right notes. Also starring Ciarán Hinds and Shirley Henderson (Aberforth Dumbledore and Moaning Myrtle, respectively, in the Harry Potter movies).

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,