The Bottom Line
Pros
- Frances McDormand and Amy Adams are charming in a feel-good, adult fable
- Eye-catching costumes and sets and enjoyable music from the swingin' years
- Movie is an homage to Hollywood comedies of the late 1930s and early '40s
Cons
- A pleasant, lightweight entertainment that doesn't stick in the mind (could be a pro)
- A small-scale film that feels contrived and stage-bound
- Movie is visually unimaginative and follows a predictable narrative arc
Description
- DVD containing period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
- Movie stars Frances McDormand and Amy Adams
- Almost 9 minutes of deleted scenes available on DVD
- DVD contains 8-minute featurette on bringing Winifred Watson's novel to the screen
- DVD has 18-minute making-of featurette
- DVD provides feature-length audio commentary by director Bharat Nalluri
- DVD is 2-sided with movie in widescreen on one side, full-screen on the other
- Feature film runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13 for some partial nudity and innuendo
- DVD release date: August 19, 2008
Guide Review - 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' DVD Review
Frances McDormand and Amy Adams are delightful in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), a frothy concoction that offers contrived comic complications leading to a happy ending. But it's a lively, satisfying movie that gives us eye-catching costumes and sets to look at and enjoyable swing music to listen to.
The story takes place all in one day in 1939 London. Guinevere Pettigrew (McDormand) is a homeless, unemployed middle-aged governess who manages to get a job as the social secretary of Delysia Lafosse (Adams), a young cabaret singer struggling to make her way up the showbiz ladder. As Delysia juggles three lovers, the straitlaced Miss Pettigrew gets spruced up and begins to enjoy life, meeting an interesting man (Ciaran Hinds).
The Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day DVD is a two-sided disc with the feature film in widescreen (2.35:1) on one side and full-screen (1.33:1) on the other. There's also a reasonably good feature-length commentary by director Bharat Nalluri. In addition, the DVD contains nine minutes of deleted scenes, an 18-minute making-of featurette, and an eight-minute featurette on bringing Winifred Watson's 1938 novel to the screen. The DVD extras enhance the enjoyment of the feature film.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a pleasant, lightweight entertainment that doesn't stick in the mind, but it is worth the price of a rental.
