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There are certain films I’ve discovered just by channel surfing; likewise, there are films that I know and when I come across them (again, channel surfing), I may stay to watch a given scene and then find myself watching the film through to the end. Most of the Ot Star Wars movies are like that; so is Casablanca. This morning my Mary and I came across another, Miss Pettgrew Lives For A Day. I found it first on TV, bought a copy, and today watched the movie through to the end anyway.

The 2008 film stars Amy Adams, Frances McDormand, Ciaran Hinds, Lee Pace, Mark Strong and Shirley Henderson, among others, and it was directed by Bharat Nalluri with a screenplay by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy adapting the 1937 novel by Winifred Watson.

I suspect you’ll already know Amy Adams’ and Frances McDormand’s work. Bharat Nalluri may be...

So fluffy that it threatens to blow off the screen at any moment, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day sustains itself through terrific forward momentum and two glorious star turns by gifted actresses Frances McDormand and Amy Adams.

This is a self-described "fairy tale for adults," set in a Noel Coward London of 1939 with ornate and spacious flats, actresses of easy virtue, lavish cocktail parties and sophisticated men and women who trade quips (and an occasional punch) with the flick of a cigarette. McDormand's penniless, middle-age governess crosses paths with Adams' flighty but ambitious American actress for a mere day, which is enough to transform the lives of both women.

The film, adapted by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy from a newly rediscovered 1939 novel by Winifred Watson, comes at you in a whirlwind of comic coincidences, sentimental yearnings, amorous betrayals and rapid costume changes. The Focus Features release, an enjoyable as it is forgettable, should find enthusiasm among older audiences in specialized venues -- those who can either remember 1939 or at least imagine it. A clutch of musical standards from that era by Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and Yip Harburg wrap the package in a nostalgic glow.

Miss Guinevere Pettigrew, fired again for a personality clash with her latest employer, hits the streets homeless, broke and dazzlingly disheveled and mousy. Nobody does disheveled and mousy like McDormand. But an extreme makeover is just around the corner. What she first encounters around that corner is Delysia -- as in Delicious -- Lafosse, Adams' effervescent take on a Depression-era, self-absorbed actress desperate enough to sleep her way to the top.

As Pettigrew enters a lavishly appointed penthouse for an interview as a "social secretary" -- a position for which she has no experience -- those sleeping arrangements have tripped Delysia up. The man in her bed, Phil (Tom Payne), a junior impresario about to cast the lead in his next musical, is not the owner of the flat. That would be Nick (Mark Strong), owner of the nightclub where Delysia sings -- who is on his way up at that moment.

Pettigrew extricates Delysia from this predicament with such world-weary aplomb that you wonder where these particular skill sets come from. Nevermind, she will continue to work her "magic" during the course of the next 24 hours, providing advice and comfort that place Delysia in the path of true love -- that being her besotted pianist Michael (Lee Pace) -- while sorting out a broken engagement between fashion industry maven Joe (Ciaran Hinds) and his gold-digging fiancee Edythe (Shirley Henderson). She also finds true love herself.

McDormand is grounded enough in a kind of no-nonsense pragmatism that feels more like Fargo than Mayfair that you can totally buy her twinkling-of-an-eye transformation into a savvy social negotiator. Adams more or less reprises her princess from Enchanted, only with a beguiling touch of ditzy naughtiness.

The Battle of Britain has been moved up a year so that air raid sirens and bombers rumbling in night sky can provide a "serious" backdrop to this foppish folly. This doesn't really work, but it causes little harm, either. Miss Pettigrew remains a romantic comedy where people break down in the midst of a torch song and the heart finds its way despite ribald distractions.

Bharat Nalluri provides well-paced direction with the lightest of touches, while the respective costume and production designers, Michael O'Connor and Sarah Greenwood.

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY

Focus Features

A Kudos Pictures/Keylight Entertainment production

Credits:

Director: Bharat Nalluri

Screenwriters: David Magee, Simon Beaufoy

Based on the novel by: Winifred Watson

Producers: Nellie Bellflower, Stephen Garrett

Executive producer: Paul Webster

Director of photography: John de Borman

Production designer: Sarah Greenwood

Music: Paul Englishby

Co-producer: Kame Frazer

Costume designer: Michael O'Connor

Editor: Barney Pilling

Cast:

Guinevere Pettigrew: Frances McDormand

Delysia Lafosse: Amy Adams

Michael: Lee Pace

Joe: Ciaran Hinds

Edythe: Shirley Henderson

Nick: Mark Strong

Phil: Tom Payne

Running time -- 92 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

• I want to be Amy Adam’s agent. If film history proves us right, her role in Junebug gave casting agents a new choice in categories such as: wholesome, southern, naïve, red head and now with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: period pic inhabitant. Joining the already cast Francis McDormand, the Focus Features romantic tale set in 1939 will see Adams portray an American songbird who befriends the governess (McDormand) sent to her home by mistake. Written by Simon Beaufoy and David Magee, this is based on Winifred Watson's book first published in 1938. The title character is a seasoned governess who gets a taste of a more glamorous, exciting life when sent to work in the home of nightclub performer Miss La Fosse and entrusted with sorting out the latter's highly unrespectable affairs. Bharat Nalluri, helmer of HBO mini "Tsunami: The Aftermath," is directing. We should see plenty

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