Mrs Harris Goes To Paris: Movie Review

Cast: Lesley Manville, Jason Isaacs, Isabelle Huppert, Alba Baptista
Director: Anthony Fabian

You've seen the likes of Mrs Harris Goes To Paris before.

Feelgood heartwarming fare that's aimed at the older end of the cinema-going audience, it's the kind of English fare that gets rolled out on Christmas telly when everyone's stuffed to the gills and just wants something easy and non-challenging to watch.

Normally, while that would be a way to dismiss a film, with Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, it becomes its winning sentiment, a pervasive sense of wholesomeness that sees you through the sentiment and obvious mawkishness when it comes.

Manville is Mrs Harris, a recently widowed cleaner whose world is changed when she sees a Dior dress at a client's house and sets her heart on earning enough to travel to Paris to purloin one. But when she finally gets to her destination, she finds herself a fish out of water as snobbery starts to batter her - will this Cinderella go to the ball?

It doesn't take much to make you realise where Mrs Harris Goes To Paris is going, and the journey is entirely predictable fluff that can all be set out from the opening frame. But sometimes, there are rare films that force cynicism into submission, revel in their goodness and prove the predictable is permissible.

Mrs Harris Goes To Paris is one such film - thanks largely to Manville's considerable charm. Her downbeat approach to the role keeps everything grounded in a kind of reality that allows the fairytale elements to grow and flourish; her character's inherent Britishness when it comes to cultural conflict and her unerring sense of goodness wins over not only the characters in the film but an audience as well.

It may be the tale of a working class lass done good, and it may well be up there with the Full Monty for its predictability, but Mrs Harris Goes To Paris' feelgood factor shouldn't be discounted here - it proves to be its winning touch in a cynical world populated by hollow blockbusters and CGI fare. It's English escapism at its most primal - and don't be surprised if you fall for its charms, no matter how fleeting they may be.