MARCH 28, 2008 - VOL. 1, ISSUE 8

Under the fake skin of a London socialite there is something more brewing, something ready to explode at a moment's notice. Love oozes from the pores of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day as the movie hides under the blanket of the Romantic Comedy genre. Bharat Nalluri, the director, uses the patterns of this genre to get at the route of the relationship between money and love.

The film begins with Miss Pettigrew's ethical decision between stealing and eating. Miss Pettigrew, played by Francis McDormand, gets fired from her job as a nanny, and is forced out to the streets, after which she begs for another job from the agency. Her socio-economic status is established by showing her eating at a soup kitchen, and then begging for a job at the agency. She is trapped between London's higher class and their financial success, and the shackles of oppression. She performs their most sacred of traditions, raising their children, but every time she instills her morals on the children—they become little rebellions—she is booted back to the streets. Since she has to work to live, she goes back on her morals for money. She steals the contact slip from her agency for a job with the well to do Delysia Lafosse, played by Amy Adams.

The scene when the two first meet is strategically used to lure me into Delysia's lavish world, and it sets the pace to surface level antics. Miss Pettigrew is told to go upstairs and wake-up Phil, whom she mistakes for Delysia's child. When Pettigrew throws the covers off of Phil, she is shocked to see his naked behind. She runs down the art deco staircase, and to her surprise Delysia's second man, Nick, is on the way. Miss Pettigrew suggests they tell Nick not to come up, but they can't because it is his London flat. From there we find out there is a third guy, Miss Pettigrew gets a make-over so she can fit in, love will probably triumph, and, in one day, Delysia and Miss Pettigrew will change.

After the pattern is set-up and we are able to have fun watching Delysia try to manage three relationships, Nalluri moves his focus on how money warps our perception of morality. Delysia is an American expatriate living in London. She is a fish out of water trying to walk around with the rich and well to do. The richest man in the film, Nick, controls everything about her, with Delysia subtly taking charge in matters that mean nothing to him. She picked out the furniture, the conflicting wallpaper, and the design of the apartment. The living room screams art deco, with rectangle lamps and straight lines on the walls, but their bedroom is a jungle motif with branches and leaves painted to the wall. Her art direction characterizes her class's style; later in the movie she reveals to Miss Pettigrew that she is poor Sara Grub from Pittsburgh. She has a lust for money, and as soon as she gets it, like a starving man with food, she gorges herself with luxury until she is satisfied enough to allow Nick to control her. With Nick she has class stability. But from the moment we see her on stage we get clues to her true nature. She lacks subtle elegance, and her actions are forced in front of the other character's faces. She doesn't sweep, she jabs. At one point, she dumps oyster shells in the silverware drawer in an attempt to hide them from Nick. At another, she kicks her heels up, wearing only a brown fur coat, and declares that there is something sensual about fur against the skin. Her morality of what is right and wrong is lost in this struggle to be a socialite, and this is where Miss Pettigrew and Michael become her moral stabilizers.

The two, coincidentally both of "lower" class, offer Delysia a chance to be human instead of a commodity. Miss Pettigrew becomes her mother figure, instructing her on what to do, and Michael is her only true friend. Money never bleeds over into their relationships. Nick sees her as a business decision. She is a commodity that he can buy with dresses, gigs, furniture, furs, and a life style. He knows she has been with Phil, but tells her it is fine because she is advancing her career. He is the caricature of the wealthy Londoner, where as Michael is his exact opposite. She has her eternal choice: money or love. Our perception is that money is bad and that love is true, so from pattern recognition we already know that she will pick love. This is a romantic comedy after all. The heroine will always get her true hero. The movie strictly adheres to this philosophy, so where it raises the bar is in Nalluri. Nalluri, an Indian making films in Britian, uses the setting to paint a drab picture of the British social elite.

The movie takes place on September 3, 1939, when Britain declared war on Germany. The characters could care less about it. The only way we know that it is happening is on the front page of unread newspapers, a fly-by from some bombers, and a siren at the end. This hidden historical event and the characters lack of response to it gives a depiction of this new, rich generation having no connection to reality. They are hedonists, living life for the appetite of what's popular. They are engrossed with the newest gossip, lingerie model, party, or play. Life has been saturated with stimulates that these men and women have forgotten that beyond wealth there is more.

At the first party, Miss Pettigrew and her love interest are standing on the balcony when two British military planes fly over. The other guests, with drinks in hand, run out to see the commotion, and comment about how beautiful they look. Miss Pettigrew, older than the other characters, shakes her head and tells her counterpart that they don't know anything about the last time these planes were in commission. The party flares up again, and jolly times are had. It's as if World War I never happened, and that this party was just at the base of an air show. Appeasement and the party are more important, and Delysia is at the center stage of this social class. She is the American trying to join the Lost Generation elite, and will do anything to attain it. What's worse, she is applauded for her attempts. Miss Pettigrew shows this Lost Generation in London much the way The Great Gatsby, the film, portrays America's higher class. While both movies include a love story that blossoms out this deviant moral behavior and expose the class's nature, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day keeps with its formula.

In the scene where Michael wins her heart in Nick's club, war sirens blare and people panic. It is a circus in the club; no one knows what to do. Do they finish their drinks, do they protect their dates, do they act scared? The human emotions within each character explode out of their center and it shows us the grossness of this social elite. Nick wants to get the patrons of his club back to spending money. Phil, when the lights turn on, is caught necking it with some actress. The music starts and people get back to dancing. Having a ball is going to save them from Germany. And then we have Delysia's final change. She chooses Michael and is applauded for picking her love over money. Men and women clap for their kiss, but it is an appeasement. They are feasting on the two's loving kiss so that the party will become some surreal euphoric moment. With this burst of emotion, they are able to truthfully enjoy the one thing money isn't supposed to be able to buy: love. Their wealth and status has allowed them to witness a personal moment that isn't a public experience. They are individuals lusting on other's love, and nothing could be more telling about their own hedonistic blind reality.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day ends with love; it's always ends with love! I left the theater with a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest—I am a sucker for the happy ending and love winning out. The recognition in the pattern makes watching this movie familiar, and the sad part about it is that this self-indulged group of people also is familiar enough not to ruin my good mood. Maybe it is because that through repetition I have become desensitized, but this doesn't mean that artists should shy away from the exploration of morality.