Bharat Nalluri's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a much more attractive Anglo-American collaboration, co-scripted by Simon Beaufoy (author of The Full Monty) and the American who wrote Finding Neverland , David Magee, and based on a recently rediscovered 1938 novel by Winifred Watson. Frances McDormand, sporting an excellent English accent, plays Guinevere Pettigrew, an honest, strait-laced governess, who accidentally becomes the social secretary to flighty American actress Delysia Lafosse, who's juggling three lovers a penniless pianist just out of jail (Lee Pace), a suave Anglo-Italian nightclub owner (Mark Strong) and a rich, young man about town (Tom Payne) who's going to put her into a West End comedy called Pile on the Pepper. The story is exactly like a brittle 1930s comedy of the type always described as risque and it's the stuff of those old British quota quickies made to help cinemas fulfil their obligation to exhibit locally produced movies.
The film attempts to raise the emotional temperature by setting it on the very eve of the Second World War (scary headlines, soldiers carrying gas masks, practice of air-raid sirens creating panic) and by bringing together the sensible Pettigrew, who lost her fiance on the Western Front, and a wealthy bachelor (Ciarn Hinds), who regrets the frivolous life he's led since the Great War.
Several people involved with Atonement (among them producer Paul Webster and production designer Sarah Greenwood) have joined in bringing a similar affection for 1930s decor to this film. There are several magnificent Art Deco sets built for the film, a nice choice of locations, including the forecourt of the Savoy, and atmospheric lighting by cinematographer John de Borman. It's a slight film but a lot of fun, with attractive performances of Brother Can You Spare a Dime?, Anything Goes, If I Didn't Care and Dream.