Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Sometimes movies can just be simple light fun, and that mentality is okay in the right doses. While it’s always nice to see the medium expand to new avenues and experiment with different styles, stories and presentations, the purpose of media at its core is to entertain, and there are plenty of films and tv shows that exist mainly for that reason but can do so in a sense that isn’t demeaning. The 2022 light-hearted comedy, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, is about as obvious a sugar-coated fluff piece as you could get, from the advertising to the manner of film that it’s emulating, to even the actors chosen, and yet it manages to be surprisingly charming.

In London during the 1950s, Mrs. Ada Harris (played by Lesley Manville) is a recently widowed housekeeper who works for people who have enough glamour and wealth to sustain themselves yet keep her around with an underpaid wage due to her passive nature and unwavering need to assist people. After being enamored by one of her client’s haute couture Dior dresses, she is convinced to try and save up for one herself, and due to some miraculous happenstances and earning a war widow’s pension due to her husband passing away in combat, she sets out to Paris in order to buy the dress of her dreams. Although she is mistreated by some of the snotty clientele within Dior, mainly the shop’s madame director, Claudine Colbert (played by Isabella Huppert), her unpolished demeanor and humble attitude earns the sympathy of several of the companies’ models, as well as Dior’s accountant, André (played by Lucas Bravo), who lets her stay with him while she waits for her dress. While experiencing the glowing streets of Paris, she is able to make new friends, help those around her, and show the world that in spite of being a simple cleaning woman from England, she is worthy of owning such a magnificent gown.

Although not looking like much and being entirely unremarkable from a story, character and writing standpoint, the movie did do well all things considered, earning a decent number at the box office, performing favorably with critics, and even managing to secure an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design. With charming actors, a pleasant visual design and prominently quirky yet unintrusive directing, scripting and music, the movie manages to be easy pleasant fun.

Based on the first in a book series written by Paul Gallico, the story of an aging middle-class working woman earning enough pennies to pay for a fancy dress, feels like the kind of story that would function better in a light-hearted children’s picture book, but not really in a feature-length film meant for adults. You can see the expected tropes, story trajectory and familiar cartoonish characters normally associated with this narrative, and while it could maybe function as a children’s special or something animated, a properly financed theatrical movie distributed by companies like Focus Features and Universal might be giving it too much credit, even with a small budget of only $9 – 13 million and no real star power outside of the lead. While seemingly reaching too high above its status, the filmmakers were smart enough to realize its quaintness and would play things as safe as possible in order to make it a crowd-pleaser for its target audience (that being middle-aged to older women). While that might sound limiting, it means the film isn’t pretending to be something it isn’t and instead goes full force into the sappy, overly sentimental, ‘’whip on top of the frosting’’ kind of atmosphere normally expected of this kind of movie, and it works out very well. It’s a surprisingly charming film that has a child-like energy that could be too simplistic and overly schmaltzy but pulls back just enough to avoid overload and balances out the upbeat and overly cheery mentality with enough somberness to provide at least somewhat of a mixture.

The directing by Anthony Fabian and the script by Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Oliver Hetreed, manages to deliver the familiar in a colorful fashion that’s befitting of its source material, handling the light-hearted and even colder moments in a way that while a little corny and can contain some forced buzzwords and catchphrases, still comes across as likeable, endearing and genuinely connectable. Essentially being a Cinderella story from the perspective of an older woman, the trajectory it takes from looked-down-upon housekeeper to star at the local dance is obvious but told in a way that is identifiable, and seeing this plot from the perspective of an older woman is pretty endearing and enjoyably fresh. It is a bit too long in parts and some subplots can feel a little too loose (even for the kind of movie it is), but it’s not to the point of feeling like it’s dragging its feet.

What the film lacks in depth, it makes up for in likability, and a lot of that comes from the acting. With roles that are fine for a small storybook, but not fleshed out enough for a film, these actors need to find a balanced way of being hyperactive enough to match the cheery atmosphere and mood but not overplay it to the point that it starts to feel distracting and phony. This does prove to be an issue for some, with actors like Ellen Thomas, Jason Isaacs, Anna Chancellor, Christian McKay and even Isabella Huppert feeling a little too cartoony to be taken seriously and aren’t fleshed out enough to feel like anything more than talking NPCs. Honestly, the whole first act in England isn’t that great, as it feels a little too ho-hum and teeters on the level of being cartoonish, but not in a fun way. Things do pick up however when she goes to Paris, and everything clicks a little better as most of the acting and characters feel more likeable and watchable.

Lucas Bravo and Alba Baptista as a Dior model have a little romance going on that, while not amazing, is cute enough and the two are ridiculously charming whenever they are on-screen, Lambert Wilson plays an upper-class fashion admirer who is going through a similar living situation as Mrs. Harris, and although part of an anticlimactic climax, he is effectively charming when he needs to be, and Rose Williams as a worker at Dior, and even eventually Isabelle Huppert, get some nice moments as the film keeps going. The star of the film is obviously Leslie Manville as Mrs. Harris, and while there are times that they play up her wholesome cheeriness to a level that borders on fabricated (like her gifting life advice that feels like something that would be plastered on a bumper sticker), it doesn’t distract away from the legitimately great aspects of this role and this character. Manville is quite good at feeling down-to-earth and incredibly endearing, but the best moments are when there’s no dialogue and she just has to emote. Scenes of her feeling extremely happy or extremely upset are done pretty well, and removing the often overly theatrical dialogue allows these moments to just speak for themselves, showcasing a really great talent.

Considering how small the budget was, it’s no surprise it isn’t brimming with extremely immaculate visuals and shots. This is kind of a shame, as Paris is a great setting to capture some truly stunning visuals that showcases the location’s extreme majesty, but due to the aforementioned budget and the fact that it actually doesn’t look like they shot too much in the actual city (with some of the monuments looking like they were green-screened in), it never really reaches that level of beauty that it could’ve. With that said, while the film doesn’t have any great shots from director of photography, Felix Wiedemann, there isn’t any moment where they are poorly done or look awkwardly cheap, and on occasion, it’ll get a nice angle that makes its location look nice enough. There’s an occasional weird dolly zoom or some moments of extended slow mo that feel inserted in solely for the purpose of padding, but it isn’t too frequent.

The film’s overall aesthetic is very nice, whether it’s through the production design by Luciana Arrighi, which does a nice job capturing the style and look of each location being presented like the bricked-walled packed-in houses and social areas of London, or the grand-scale, expansive and overly clean and toned areas of Paris, the costume design by Jenny Beavan, which models these various dresses in a way that could make even someone who is unfamiliar with fashion feel mesmerized, and the overall art direction, which gives it a fancy and colorful, but not overly stylized look. The books seem to feature illustrations that are rich in atmospheric lighting and color and has a sketchy yet still nice look to them that would make for a fitting style in a story about a lower-class person getting something within the higher class. While the movie doesn’t really have that much of an exaggerated look, you still get that idea, especially with the assistance of the music. The score by Rael Jones is a waltz-like composition that, due to how often it’s used and how prominent it is when it does get used, could be a little irritating, but the soft, flowing nature of the piece allows for effective ambiance rather than feeling like it’s trying to jolt emotions, it’s nicely handled.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris doesn’t rock the cinematic boat but is a delightful paddle down the French canal. For something that looks like such a small, simple book narrative, this movie provides an experience that didn’t exceed that baseline but complemented that benchmark with a personality that is certainly hoaky but also insanely likeable. The visuals are limited, but make the most of what they have, the writing can be a little obvious, but not to the point of being painful, and the actors are so charming and so endearing that it overshadows any sense of generic-ness that comes from these characters. If the trailers don’t win you over, then the actual film won’t sway you in any way, but if you can get some sense of enchantment and enjoyment from those trailers, this film may be worth searching out.