Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

 Based on a Paul Gallico novel, the plot is simple enough.  Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) is a cleaning lady in the grey London of the 1950s, traipsing round the houses of the rich and clueless to earn her keep, meekly putting up with employers who treat her like one of their most anonymous pierces of furniture.  She's (probably) lost her husband in the war, and what little entertainment she gets comes through her exuberant fellow cleaner Vi (Ellen Thomas) and twinkling Irish bookie Archie (Jason Isaacs).  But it's not much of a life.

In the home of Lady Dant (Anna Chancellor) Ada comes across a dress that takes her breath away, a Christian Dior that, her ladyship superciliously informs her, cost £500.  An impossible sum for a cleaner, but that won't stop dreaming and scheming.  After scraping and scrimping and working extra hours, and the benefit of a few ludicrous coincidences, Mrs H, as the title implies, is Paris bound.  She arrives in a city which, despite evidence of an ongoing strike by bin workers, is like a Hollywood creation.  A place of magic and dreams and romance.  Where she becomes a part of those dreams, and also sees what underlies them.  After various complications, she returns home with a dress, and back to reality, whatever that is.  I won't give away any more, but of course there's a happy ending, what else did you expect? 

If that all sounds like I'm going to suggest you give this one a miss then you'd be wrong.  Because, like the abovementioned Archibald Leach, what this movie delivers abundantly is charm.  Yes, the plot is often preposterous, and predictable, and cheesy.   But it's also whimsical, amusing, and, at the centre of the action, Manville is being as wonderful as ever.  Her Mrs H is put upon, resilient, warm, lonely, fanciful, practical. There's romance, conflict, friendship, heart break and heartwarming, individuality and solidarity.  Workers rights and the iniquitous class system.  Dreams and reality.  Even a spark of inspiration.  Don't look for depth, because that isn't what this film is about.  But it does deliver hope.  Is there anything we need more of right now?

Go along, suspend disbelief, and let yourself be charmed.