delightfulness!

So anyone that has ever talked to writeapostcard has heard us expel at length about our inability to understand movies. In short, we don't like movies/films that often because we want them to be more like novels. And real novels. None of this Safran Foer Eggers Chabon crap, but the 19th century European novel. Our more general criticisms of films that we do manage to sit through are generally focused on plotting/characterization; the analyses of which translate more easily between the two mediums. We're not that visually inclined--WaP has really bad eyesight. So except for the most obvious moments, the beauty of the landscape doesn't particularly move us. Color palettes, shot composition, and whatever mumbo jumbo they teach aspirational film critics in Introduction to Film Theory...we don't get it. WaP should probably take a class or something.

The above is a disclaimer as we move on to a wholehearted endorsement of the movie "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day."

It is the BEST MOVIE EVER. Rarely do we see a commercial for a movie and think, "WE HAVE to see that," and then even more rarely do we actually peel my lazy butt off the couch and actually go see it. It actually happened for this movie. We had mentioned repeatedly again and again to everyone we know how much we was looking forward to seeing it and it did not disappoint one bit, ladies and gentlemen.

Amy Adams is adorable. The cutesy princess voice she used for Enchanted reappears, but as the manifestation of her public persona; her "real" voice being the signal for her private, "real"self. In both modes, she continues to be absolutely darling.

And Frances McDormand plays a downtrodden, failure of a governess; the failure, it is hinted, arises because she is actually totally rad and likes to play with her charges and have fun even though she is tightly laced up in her Edwardian (we think?) upbringing.

Of course the movie ends in both characters finding their true! selves in a wacky (Hollywood style!), wonderful way replete with bedroom farces and a little bit of song.

We blushed in sheer enjoyment the entire time. It was so. fucking. adorable. It was like a non-furry form of cuteoverload.com put on screen.


(Also, the clothing is fucking wonderful in the way that all clothes from that period are. Look at that blue dress! And boys, if you bring the lady in your life to this movie, it might inspire her to invest in really amazing lingerie!)

An additional anecdote: After the movie ended, a NYU sorority looking girl, who had been sitting in front of us with her two friends, stood up and said, "That movie was terrible; from beginning to end, it sucked."

Our response to that loud statement was this: "You have no joy in your life."

Which doesn't even make that much sense, but the sentiment remains. Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day is the kind of movie that makes you smile; you walk out with a bounce in your step and a bit of joy in your heart. What kind of person can hate a movie like that?