Every year, there are always a few critically acclaimed gems that don't get quite enough traction to make an impression among the tentpole summer blockbusters, whether it be through a lackluster marketing campaign or the big dogs pushing it out. One of this summer's most pleasant surprises is "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," a thoroughly delightful adaptation of Paul Gallico's 1958 novel about a London maid who travels to the city of lights to fulfill her dream of owning a Dior couture dress of her own.
I've never read the book upon which the film is based on, but director Anthony Fabian ("Good Hope") imbues the kind-hearted fairy tale with an exuberant amount of charm. It has the beating heart of a storybook, bolstered by a charismatic central performance from Lesley Manville.
Manville's presence in a story about fashion may cause some whiplash to those who are familiar with her...
I've never read the book upon which the film is based on, but director Anthony Fabian ("Good Hope") imbues the kind-hearted fairy tale with an exuberant amount of charm. It has the beating heart of a storybook, bolstered by a charismatic central performance from Lesley Manville.
Manville's presence in a story about fashion may cause some whiplash to those who are familiar with her...
- 8/26/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
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There’s a wonderful symmetry to the lead casting of Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, playing a woman who’s the flipside of Cyril, her role in Phantom Thread. That character glided around a mid-’50s London couture atelier with icy ownership, fiercely protective of her dress designer brother and his classical creations. As Mrs. Harris, Manville dreams of accessing a similarly privileged world of sartorial splendor, one in which her age and class make her seem an unlikely interloper. The beauty of her performance in this delightful fairy tale for grown-ups is the way in which her purity of heart and inherent goodness gently pry open those closed doors.
Manville has excelled at playing characters on the brittle, aloof, even villainous end of the spectrum; she was a viciously tyrannical matriarch in Let Him Go and the juiciest of schemers in Harlots.
There’s a wonderful symmetry to the lead casting of Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, playing a woman who’s the flipside of Cyril, her role in Phantom Thread. That character glided around a mid-’50s London couture atelier with icy ownership, fiercely protective of her dress designer brother and his classical creations. As Mrs. Harris, Manville dreams of accessing a similarly privileged world of sartorial splendor, one in which her age and class make her seem an unlikely interloper. The beauty of her performance in this delightful fairy tale for grown-ups is the way in which her purity of heart and inherent goodness gently pry open those closed doors.
Manville has excelled at playing characters on the brittle, aloof, even villainous end of the spectrum; she was a viciously tyrannical matriarch in Let Him Go and the juiciest of schemers in Harlots.
- 7/11/2022
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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