Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

The 1950s in drab old London town: the cheerful Mrs. Harris (Leslie Manville, perfect) earns money as a cleaning lady. But after she spots a gorgeous Dior dress, she decides she must have it. She saves her pennies and—aided by a lucky win on the football pools—heads to Paris, where Dior’s haughty director of operations, Mme Colbert (a delicious Isabelle Huppert) has nothing but scorn for her. At first… Director Anthony Fabian has done a fabulous job—to call this delightful film ‘enchanting’ is not going too far. ‘Lesley Manville is terrific in [this] ‘Mary Poppins’-ish fun… [She] is utterly convincing as a wide-eyed chirpy cleaner who comes into money and sets her heart on a Dior dress in this 1950s-set charmer… There’s such a lovely sweet-natured sense of fun in this Cinderella tale, a multicoloured confection like something that Fortnum & Mason might put in the shop window… I hope it’s a box-office smash up to Christmas and beyond.’—Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian