Film Review — Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
Lesley Manville charms in Anthony Fabian’s lovely adaptation of Paul Gallico’s novel
A cynical perusal of the machine-tooled publicity material for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (complete with endorsements from such highbrow cinematic publications as GQ and Cosmopolitan) caused me to enter this film with low expectations. I emerged a couple of hours later pleasantly surprised. Yes, it’s as light as a soufflé and hardly going to challenge the brain cells, but this second adaptation of Paul Gallico’s novel (there’s an earlier TV movie from 1992 that I haven’t seen), is a lovely piece of work. Certainly, I’d opt for this over Ticket to Paradise (which I saw last week); another recent release that aims at escapism but fails to tug heartstrings in the same way.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a Cinderella-esque wish-fulfilment fairy tale of sorts. Set in 1957, it concerns the eponymous Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), a widowed London cleaner who, after winning the football pools, scrimps and saves for a trip to Paris. There she is determined to buy a £500 Christian Dior dress, having seen one at the home of a client (an agreeably snooty Anna Chancellor). Her presence upsets the imperiously Gallic Claudine (Isabelle Huppert), who oversees the Dior establishment. But Ada is a force of nature who, during her stay in…
