Was really excited when this movie was released, looked right up my street but was disappointed.
Found it a bit hum drum although story line plodded on quite well. It was well acted and some lovely
1950's costumes seen at Dior fashion show. Nothing to get excited about.
Charming, uplifting, heart-warming? Or facile, contrived, clichéd? Bland direction, competent acting, nice colours… lacking one iota of cinematic imagination. If you like cosy, easy-going, Sunday night TV drama, here’s another of which the British film industry seems to have an endless supply. The trailer will tell you all you need to know. If you wish the British film industry would up its game, watch and weep.
A light comedy of manners with a clash of cultures theme that has a warmth and gentleness making for a quite lovely film. Starring Lesley Manville, another British treasure and superb actress, who gives the titular role just the right touches throughout the entire film. Set in the late 1950s and Mrs Harris is a war widow who makes her living as a cleaner for hire. She dreams of one day owning a Christian Dior dress to wear to the local hop and she diligently saves her money where she can sometimes with a surprise small football pools win and sometimes losing on a silly bet at the greyhound racing. Eventually she scrapes together enough and heads off to Paris where she is a fish out of water. The script is gentle enough not to try and wring every joke out of the language barriers or the cultural shocks between the French and English that Mrs Harris encounters. The film is more concerned with showing how Mrs Harris' natural warmth, innocence and kindness wins people over even though she can be roused to action if the situation demands. Her main adversary in the story is Claudine (Isabelle Huppert), the Dior manager who sees her as a threat to their rich clients but even this tetchy relationship is not the focus of the narrative which remains one about kindness and humanity. This is just a pleasant almost Disneyesque film that leaves you smiling at the end and it's worth an evenings viewing.