A film straight out of yesteryear, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris sets its stall up as a feelgood comedy with just a slight edge. The ever-dependable Lesley Manville plays Mrs. Harris, a widowed cleaner for the rich in the London of 1957, with no small aplomb. She is endlessly optimistic and trusting and puts up with no end of classist snobbery, both from her English clients and from the haughty director of Christian Dior (a role that fits Isabelle Huppert like a glove), once she has got to Paris to buy the dress of her dreams with the aid of an unexpected windfall after a succession of self-inflicted mishaps.
It is a sugary concoction, the events improbable and Paris a fantastical picture postcard, all clearly aimed at appealing to telescopic tourists, particularly American ones. But it's impossible to avoid rooting for Manville's feisty underdog and coming away smiling.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment