Premise: A cleaning lady saves up all her money to go to Paris and get a Dior dress.
Simply put, this movie is very nice. It can be generally summed up as "a woman goes to Paris, makes friends with a bunch of people because she's pleasant, and gets a really nice dress." The stakes aren't particularly high, nor do they need to be. I get why this has been a low-key charmer all year: the kind of movie that makes only a few top 10 lists, but everyone wants to mention as a movie they considered.
I feel like all the words I want to use about this are overused. Like, I want to call Lesley Manville as the titular Mrs. Harris "winning". It's cool that Isabelle Huppert was willing to take a supporting role in this small movie. She's a legend who really doesn't have to take any role she doesn't want, so it says a lot when she takes a pseudo-villain role in this. It's hard to find someone in this cast I didn't like. I wasn't that familiar with the French actors, but I look forward to seeing them show up in other films. Alba Baptista was so charming that I'm actually considering if catching up on Warrior Nun is worth my time.
There is one thing that kept bugging me about this movie. So, it's all about this woman with low standing going to Paris and making her voice heard for the first time. I don't know that I actually believe the transformation. Manville is very convincing in Paris, but I don't believe that character would've had that life in London before this. This is an argument I make a lot. I can believe that if that character started the movie in the place she does, she would get to where she does by the end of the movie. I have trouble believing the character we meet in the movie would start where she does though. I'm willing to go with it, because I'd rather just enjoy the movie, but it is something that took me out of it on occasion as I watched.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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