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Amy Adams is the best actress working in Hollywood today.  There are those who will balk at that idea, but if one will look at her emerging body of work, she is proving time and time again that she is the actress of record. Enchanted and June Bug would never have worked with another actress in the role.  She sparkles, turning mediocre material into magic. Every time she is on the Silver Screen, there is something special in her reading.  Her latest film is the pre-WWII comedy of manners called Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

The film is set in 1939 London in the days just before Hitler starts the bombing.  Tensions are the norm.  Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a governess recently tossed from her last job.  It seems that she is a taskmaster with her charges and has little patience for immorality and depravity.  Losing all her possessions, she desperately begs the placement agency to find her work, which they refuse.  In an act of desperation, Miss Pettigrew steals the information on a client looking for help. 

When she arrives at the penthouse apartment, Miss Pettigrew is thrown into the life of Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams).  Delysia is an actress/singer looking to break into the West End of London by bedding boy producer Phil.  Club owner Nick who also has a relationship with the young singer.  He owns the apartment she lives in. Pettigrew is thrown into the dual task of getting Phil out of the bed and Nick not suspecting.  She handles the task with newly discovered grace, surprising even herself. 

Delysia believes that Miss Pettigrew is a social secretary and this begins a whirlwind day.  Delysia is a manipulator of men, doing whatever it takes to achieve stardom.  But she is never truly mean to her suitors, she just sees men more as a way to get what she wants.  And what she wants is everything. 

Along this 24-hour excursion, Miss Pettigrew attends a fashion show of women’s under ware and a fabulous party where the lead actress of the latest West End romp will be announced.  Our Miss Pettigrew finds that the world of the entertainment jungle is full of snakes and vermin, all wanting to conquer their little piece of the land.  We also meet Michael (Lee Pace); Delysia’s pianist who has known her for years and has always carried a torch for her.  All of this boils down into the major plot point, will Delysia and Miss Pettigrew find love and change their lives in a scant day. 

This little film is more in tune with a flick from the 1930’s than one would imagine.  But where those cinematic romps only flirted with the mention of bad mores, this film is a bit coarser.  There is no mistaking that Delysia will sleep her way to what she wants, even at the expense of the man who loves her.  There are nude bodies all around Delysia’s life. Pettigrew is older and remembers the first World War in a way that it pains her to see it coming again.  She lives an existence of heartbreak; hiding is the shadows of love.  But when she gets a makeover, she does shine.

Amy Adams channels all of the great female comedic actresses from the golden age of Silver Screen comedy with her reading of Delysia Lafosse.  Even though she is a bit trampy, one can not question the idea of being in love with her.  She just sparkles in every scene with wit and verve.

The tag line of “Can you get a life and discover love, all in one day? Two women are about to find out” basically gives us our story.  It is simply put a well-told tale of a time and place that never existed except on the movie house wall. 

Even though it is very early, I can see this little gem getting some Oscar nods, especially in the costume and set design categories.  If I have to pick a must see so far this year, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day would be that film.  It is the only flick of 2008 I would want to see again

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