Soulshine

“A person can change.” Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Guinevere Pettigrew understands that a person can change. But unfortunately she always thinks it should be someone other than herself. In the film Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day , we quickly learn that Guinevere has a difficult time keeping jobs. She is known as the “Governess of Last Resort” and has been dismissed from many positions as a nanny. The problem? Guinevere always finds fault with her employers and thinks that they should change to please her. After all, she’s the daughter of a clergyman. If her employer drinks a bit too much, she isn’t going to tolerate such behavior. She’s going to do her best to change her employer, to reform him or her—until they tire of her prudish righteousness and give her the sack. Certainly I can empathize with poor Miss Pettigrew. I was raised with high religion and an extremely unhealthy dose of self-righteousness. And in the past I wanted to reform most everyone, too. I ...

“He smiled whenever he saw me. And we could have built a life on that.” Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day In the 2008 English film Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day , Frances McDormand plays Guinevere Pettigrew, social secretary to Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams) for one incredible day. Delysia is a night club singer in 1930s London, and she’s busy juggling three men: Nick, her boss at the Scarlet Peacock Night Club; Philip, a West End Play Producer; and Michael, a penniless piano player. She’s also busy trying to escape from her true self: Miss Sarah Grubb of the Pittsburgh Grubbs. Both Nick and Philip allow Delysia to indulge her fantasy of mega-stardom as they provide her with luxury and the promise of a glamorous future. Neither knows that she comes from a lower class family amidst the American steel mills, and neither would pursue her if they did know. Michael, on the other hand, knows and loves the Sarah Grubb who’s hiding under the elegant make-up of Delysia LaFosse....