For those tired of movies where something as grand as the fate of our existence hangs in the balance, threatened by aliens or wizards or something so far removed from reality, the simply titled and even simpler plot “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” offers a welcome respite. Here, in a new adaptation of Paul Gallico's 1958 novel, we have a fairy tale at our fingertips about a relentlessly cheerful English maid whose burning dream is to own a dress by Christian Dior (a designer whose name naively, but not without reason). endearingly, she mispronounces, the same way Nomi talks about her new "Versayce" on "Showgirls").
Mrs. Harris's goal may not seem so far-fetched, but it can only be achieved by stepping out of her comfort zone, which means saving her pennies and taking a trip across the Channel to Chanel land, where she meets they make the dresses to order and what she yearns for is pronounced "Crest-yon Dee-yor". We're talking 1957, and the most exclusive French fashion houses don't sell to just anyone, and certainly not to as common a customer as this working-class war widow, so unassumingly embodied by frequent Mike Leigh collaborator Lesley Manville.
Director: Anthony Fabian
Writers: Anthony Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson
Stars: Jason Isaacsm, Lesley Manville, Anna Chancellor
In Paul Thomas Anderson's global fashion power drama "Phantom Thread," Manville shone at the opposite end of the snobbish spectrum, playing Daniel Day-Lewis' foreman sister, the tough, invisible woman behind the big man, so to speak. Now, she faces that kind of person in Mme. Colbert, the cold and condescending director of the House of Dior, played by the silver screen ice queen Isabelle Huppert. “A Christian Dior dress is not for pennies”, Mme. Colbert snorts when Mrs. Harris shows up, looking clueless and a bit disheveled, at 30 Montaigne Avenue.
Clearly, it wasn't enough to get the funding, though Ms. Harris's unconventional process for doing so drives the light-hearted first act of this featherweight adaptation from director Anthony Fabian. (Gallico's slim but much-loved book previously spawned three sequels, a 1992 TV movie starring Angela Lansbury in the title role, and a 2016 stage musical, "Flowers for Mrs. Harris.") In the fanciful way of the film, Mrs. Harris must add conquering Mme. Colbert to the list of obstacles that she must overcome before acquiring a portable work of art. Fortunately for her, almost everyone Mrs. Harris meets in Paris, from the affable drunks of the Gare du Nord to the romantic Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), finds her charming.
Manville makes her like that, playing Mrs. Harris as a good-natured woman who believes in luck and kindness, but also a kind of socialist equality. "My money is as good as anyone's," she insists, organizing the underrated artisans who actually make Dior dresses into an impromptu labor strike for the film's wacky climax. This ending doesn't really work, nor does the film's feel-good epilogue, in which we finally see Mrs. Harris wearing Dior: while Manville isn't frumpy, the "dress," as Mrs. Harris refers to the The more seductive name "Temptation" does not have the same effect on her as it did on Dior's top model, Natasha (Alba Baptista, a beautiful Portuguese actress whose classic appeal suggests a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Alicia Vikander).
This may be Mrs. Harris's princess fantasy, set in a "Funny Face"-era evocation of mid-century Paris (much of it doubled on the streets of Budapest), but that whimsical spirit it doesn't seduce audiences as much as it excuses overly convenient plotting and largely one-dimensional characterizations. Fabian's movie is charming enough, though his attempts at romance remain earthy, as he makes a clear break from the TV version, offering a different take on the character.
As much as Lansbury's Broadway version of "Mame" had nothing to do with Rosalind Russell's previous incarnation, Manville borrows nothing from Lansbury's performance. Manville plays Mrs. Harris as a pragmatic but also superstitious woman. She bets on dog racing and believes her late husband has sent her on a mission to find love. Could this be her chance? Frankly, it's more interesting to see how Ms. Harris inspires others, as when she encourages the budding attraction between Natasha and Dior's bumbling accountant André (Lucas Bravo, of obvious "Emily in Paris" influence), who share an interest in Sartre's existentialist. treatise “Being and Nothingness”.
Watch Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris 2022 Trailer
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