Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
So, I watched this movie last night.
I remember it getting pretty "meh" reviews, despite the 5 stars in the poster. That may be a false memory however.
So, it had Amy Adams, (my girlfriend) Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies guy - my boyfriend), and Frances McDormand.
Amy Adams was weird in this movie. She reminded me of Nicole Kidman in this, when Nicole Kidman acts "cute". I suppose she was trying to play a cheery, girly, ditzy-on-the-surface, 1940s screen vixen, but... it was a little weak. Not very natural at all. In the latter half of the movie that persona lets a bit, and she's much better.
Also, I don't know if it was my TV, or purposeful sound editing to make it like stage/old movies but the sound was curious. I particularly remember one scene where everybody's footsteps were very pronounced. I imagine it must have been on purpose, because it was very distinct. Like a cartoon or something.
Lee Pace and Frances McDormand both had English accents in the movie, and both were actually quite good. I was particularly surprised with Lee Pace's. It seemed quite natural. If I hadn't known any of the actors in the movie, I might guess Frances McDormand could be American, but Lee Pace would have convinced me as a Brit.
Overall I enjoyed the movie well enough. It was a nice enough story and the had a large female cast. Besides Adams and McDormand, the leads in the film who are both female, there is Shirley Henderson (aka Moaning Mertle), and Christina Cole (Main girl season 1 of Hex). Henderson's role is probably on screen as much as Lee Pace, and more than any of the other men besides. Cole's is much smaller, her chracter is mentioned alot but has less on screen time and even fewer lines. In the end the cast is basically made up of 4 men and 4, maybe 5, women, which is good numbers for a Hollywood film.
In the end the two female leads are more or less swept away and rescued by men, which is unfortunate for a story with otherwise reasonably strong female leads. However, until then both are surviving on their own. Though it is true Adams survives a great deal through her relationships with men providing clothes/housing/food (although she herself has a job as some sort of lounge singer, her boyfriends still provide for her lifestyle), one can hardly blame her in 1938.
The screenplay was written by 2 men, but all things considered they treated the female leads well. It probably helps that the original 1938 novel was written by a woman so the characters are laid out for them already, but still, they did a fine job. Taking nothing away from the screenplay, this may be the type of movie that makes a much better book, as it played like a stagepiece. I'll probably read the book eventually.
Overall score. 7/10.