Meeting "Mrs. Harris"

I suspect that I feel mostly positive about "Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris," the first proper film version of the Paul Gallico novel, because I've already seen a pretty terrible adaptation of it.  Back in the '90s, there was a TV movie version of this story starring Angela Landsbury and Omar Sharif, which started out fine, but managed to royally bungle the ending.  Also, a TV movie budget couldn't really do certain elements justice.  The film version, starring Lesley Manville, also changes the ending, but perhaps for the better.

A gentle class-conscious comedy, "Mrs. Harris" takes place in the 1950s, when London cleaning woman, Ada Harris, becomes fixated on the idea of purchasing a haute couture gown.  When she receives a lucky windfall, it's off to Paris and the fashion house of Christian Dior, where Mrs. Harris has to navigate the complicated steps to actually acquire her heart's desire.  And she doesn't even speak French!  Dior's director Claudine (Isabelle Huppert) is hostile to Mrs. Harris's presence, but the much nicer accounts man Fauvel (Lucas Bravo), sweet model Natasha (Alba Baptista), and the intriguing Marquis deChassagne (Lambert Wilson) all come to her aid.  And she, in turn, comes to theirs.

The appeal of Mrs. Harris is her humble demeanor and her very English, very down-to-earth sense of humor.  Lesley Manville is immediately lovable in the role, and has no trouble convincing us that everyone Mrs. Harris meets just can't help being charmed by her.  It's fun watching her get excited about setting off on a real adventure to a faraway land, and getting everyone invested in her impossible quest.  However, there's always a sense of world-weary melancholy about her, and in several scenes Manville conveys a wealth of heartache while hardly uttering a word.  I like that the movie is all about the fantasies of romance and glamor and beauty, but is smart enough to examine and question the underpinnings of these fantasies.   

I've heard comparisons of "Mrs. Harris" to the "Paddington" movies, another feel-good British franchise that takes a stand for being kind and polite and believing in the best in people.  There has been, however, some welcome updating of "Mrs. Harris" as a character.  After all, her chief drive in this story is her pursuit of a piece of luxury clothing, something reserved for the rich and privileged.  So it makes sense that she should help her new friends rattle some class boundaries, stand up for the working stiff, and eventually learn to stand up for herself.  Of course, she helps to engineer a romance between two young people, and maybe saves Dior too, because this is that kind of movie.

Fans of fashion will appreciate the care that went into depicting the House of Dior as it existed in the '50s, along with a specific 1957 Dior collection.  The costumes were handled by Jenny Beavan, who worked on "Cruella," and clearly knows how to make clothes look amazing onscreen.  I would have suspected some sort of branding deal in place, except that Mrs. Harris's dress was specifically a Dior gown in the original book.  I can hardly be miffed about the company taking a perfect opportunity to put their name all over this movie.

"Mrs. Harris" is a Cinderella story at heart, about never being too old to go and chase your dreams.  Making those dreams a little more progressive and a little more modern minded doesn't do the movie any harm at all.  As I mentioned earlier, the ending has been changed to be a more typically happy one, but the film feels like it's earned it.  

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