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Imagine lovingly gazing into a French patisserie’s window display of colorful confections: chocolatey éclairs, fluffy macarons, shiny religieuses ... Cinematically speaking, Anthony Fabian ’s genial and disarming “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is the closest you can get to that mouthwatering sweet-tooth sensation without the calories. Adapted from Paul Gallico ’s 1958 novel (charmingly called “Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris”) by a crowded group of screenwriters that includes Carroll Cartwright , Keith Thompson , and Olivia Hetreed in addition to Fabian, this mid-century-set treat is as pretty and heartwarming as you can imagine in following a modest housekeeper’s dreamy quest to head to Paris and purchase her very own Christian Dior gown.

It helps that the titular heroine Ada—a London-based war widow, making ends meet as a humble housekeeper—is played by the ever alluring Lesley Manville , a performer of both effortless grace and unyielding vigor. It’s impossible not to recall her character from “ Phantom Thread ” here, given both films are circa-'50s, couture-focused outings. But the affable Mrs. Harris is worlds removed from the steely House of Woodcock head Cyril of click-clacking heels and a no-nonsense demeanor. On the contrary, the tireless do-gooder Ada is as warmhearted as a human being can be. And Manville secures the audience's goodwill so quickly that you don’t, even for a second, question why a hardworking cleaning lady from limited means would blow off all her life’s savings on a superfluous indulgence like a designer gown. After all, this is a lighthearted fairy tale and who is to say that Mrs. Harris’ dream—one she acquires as soon as she lays her eyes on a Dior dress owned by one of her wealthy clients for the first time—isn’t as valid as anyone’s romantic pursuits?

Indeed, fashion equals love in “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” which understands on a deep level why a handsome dress or a head-to-toe put-together outfit can feel like an armor of invincibility. (On that note, even with her small budget, Ada is never less than polished, or even a little fancy, with her pretty prints and hopeful florals that dominate her daywear.) So you root for Mrs. Harris’ goal unequivocally, especially once she saves up enough cash with a little help from her friends and strangers that she consistently wins over. And after a string of chance gambles and strange pursuits like dog races, Ava finds herself at the storied House of Dior, legendarily on Avenue Montaigne.

The script doesn’t dwell on logistical details and plausibility so much. In that regard, don’t ask how a Pollyanna-esque civilian who doesn’t really look like the haughty Dior type casually strolls into the designer house and before you know it, mingles with the label’s head Claudine Colbert ( Isabelle Huppert , giving Cyril Woodcock a run for her money), the brand’s handsome accountant André ( Lucas Bravo ), and top model Natasha ( Alba Baptista ). Still, that is exactly what happens once the handsome suitor Marquis de Chassagne ( Lambert Wilson ) openly supports Mrs. Harris and invites her to join him on the label’s upcoming fashion show.

That centerpiece display—flaunting various New Look-era frocks, including an iteration of the iconic Bar Suit—is really what you come to “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” for, with Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan marvelously in charge. And how could Ada not fall in love with every single piece of clothing that she sees, especially an emerald-green gown called Venus and her favorite: the shimmery, crimson-red tea-length dress, Temptation ? But once the initially villainous (but increasingly sympathetic) Claudine announces that Temptation is exclusively promised to a repeat Dior client, Ada settles with Venus , the expedited making of which would take the house’s miracle cutters a couple of speedy weeks.

Moving in with the kindly André during this time and even putting her skills as a matchmaker to work—yes, André and the brainy Natasha are would-be love interests—Ada settles into a new routine in Paris, once again earning the love and trust of everyone she crosses paths with. In any other setting, the film’s farfetched ending—so outlandishly whimsical and neatly wrapped that even the likes of Cinderella would envy it—would garner nothing but eye rolls. But in the fable-esque world that Fabian builds, it feels just right, even rightfully deserved. The world isn’t the happiest place to be these days, so why not cheer a little bit for a wholesome, decent character in a lovely dress?

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Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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Film credits.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

Rated PG for suggestive material, language and smoking.

Lesley Manville as Ada Harris

Isabelle Huppert as Louise Colbert

Lucas Bravo as André Fauvel

Lambert Wilson as Marquis de Chassagne

Alba Baptista as Natasha

Anna Chancellor as Lady Dant

Rose Williams as Pamela Penrose

Anthony Fabian

Writer (novel)

Paul Gallico
Carroll Cartwright
Keith Thompson
Olivia Hetreed

Cinematographer

Felix Wiedemann
Barney Pilling

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Lambert Wilson, from left, Lesley Manville, Guilaine Londez and Dorottya Ilosvai in a scene from "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris."

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We could all use a little escapism right now, especially when the escapism in question is as exceedingly pleasant as Anthony Fabian’s “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” starring the luminous Lesley Manville as a cleaning lady from London who takes a trip to Paris to see about a frock. It’s not just any frock — it’s haute couture from the House of Christian Dior, the kind of dress that can change a life, and in this case, changes many.

London, 1957. Ada Harris (Manville), a modest woman who makes her living cleaning up after others, has been waiting around for her Eddie, who has yet to return from the war. She has a prim basement apartment, a friend Vi (Ellen Thomas) with whom she rides the bus and shares port with lemon at the pub after work, and a passing interest in the dashing Archie (Jason Isaacs), who always seems to be dancing with someone else.

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Her clients take her for granted, but Ada is a woman who believes in signs and serendipity, and soon, the messages from the universe are too many to ignore. First, a package with Eddie’s ring and a letter that he’s been officially killed in action, his plane shot down in 1944. Then, a widow’s pension, a reward for turning in a diamond pin, and a sports bet that manages to go the right way, thanks to a little help from her friends. She knows exactly where she’ll put this unexpected windfall, having fallen under the spell of a sparkling pink Dior gown in the closet of one of her more difficult clients, Lady Dant (Anna Chancellor).

One could say that frittering away money on an expensive dress wouldn’t be worth it, but one would be revealing themselves as not knowing the real power of real fashion; that often looking good means feeling good, and feeling good means knowing, and demanding your own worth. This is the message of “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” which boasts a proud pro-labor sentiment, starting with Mrs. Harris, whose adventure across the English Channel helps her to see herself as someone worth being seen, someone deserving of nice things.

Her newfound empowerment starts almost as soon as she lands in Paris. Having traveled so far, she does what seems impossible: standing up to Isabelle Huppert. The legendary French actress plays the snooty Mme. Colbert, who threatens to kick her out of the exclusive fashion house. But cash in hand, she’s welcomed by the workers of Dior, including André Fauvel (Lucas Bravo), the accountant, manager Marguerite (Roxane Duran) and model Natasha (Alba Baptista). Ada’s working-class English spunk also catches the eye of the Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), and bestowed with their goodwill, she enjoys a week in Paris while her Dior gown is custom made. Along the way, she’ll do a little matchmaking, unionize the atelier and help to change the way Dior does business forever.

The story is fantastical, predictable and utterly delightful, allowing the audience to engage in familiar generic pleasures that have been cut and trimmed to fit every curve neatly. Based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico, and written by Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson and Olivia Hetreed, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” sits at the well-appointed intersection of “Phantom Thread” and “Emily in Paris,” which shares much narrative DNA. It’s particularly amusing to see Manville square up with Huppert as the hoity-toity hard-nosed manager of a fashion house, when Manville so deliciously ate up a similar role in her Oscar-nominated performance in “Phantom Thread.” Plus, it’s a treat to see French hunk Lucas Bravo of “Emily in Paris” as the bumbling, bespectacled and besotted young accountant.

The film swirls around Manville’s charismatically authentic performance as Mrs. Harris. It wouldn’t be as believable or as charming without her in the role, and she holds the center with ease, the perfect subject (not mannequin) on which to build the frothy fashion delight that is “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” an escape we all deserve.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris'

Rating: PG, for suggestive material, language and smoking Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes Playing: Opens July 15 in general release

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‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ Review: How Far Would You Go for the Perfect Dior Dress?

Mike Leigh regular Lesley Manville plays a modest English cleaning woman intent on owning a Christian Dior gown in this affable homage to haute couture.

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For those tired of movies in which something as grand as the fate of our existence is at stake — threatened by aliens or wizards or something so far removed from reality — the simply titled and even more simply plotted “ Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris ” offers a pleasant reprieve. Here, in a fresh adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel, we get an arm’s-reach fairy tale about an indefatigably chipper English charwoman whose most ardent dream is to own a gown from Christian Dior (a designer whose name she naively — but not un-endearingly — mispronounces, much the way Nomi speaks of her new “Versayce” in “Showgirls”).

Mrs. Harris’ goal may not seem so far-fetched, but it can only be realized by stepping out of her comfort zone, which means saving up her pennies and making a trip across the Channel to the land of Chanel, where dresses are made to order and what she craves is pronounced “Creest-yon Dee-yor.” This is 1957 we’re talking about, and the most exclusive French fashion houses don’t sell to just anyone — and certainly not to a client as common as this working-class war widow, so modestly embodied by frequent Mike Leigh collaborator Lesley Manville (“Another Year”).

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In Paul Thomas Anderson’s fashion-world power drama “Phantom Thread,” Manville shone at the opposite end of the snobbery spectrum, playing Daniel Day-Lewis’ taskmaster sister — the tough, invisible woman behind the great man, as it were. Now, she’s up against just that sort of person in Mme. Colbert, the cold and condescending director of the House of Dior, played by big-screen ice queen Isabelle Huppert . “A Christian Dior gown is not for pennies,” Mme. Colbert huffs when Mrs. Harris shows up, looking clueless and slightly disheveled, at 30 avenue Montaigne.

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Evidently, it wasn’t enough to come up with the funds — though Mrs. Harris’ unconventional process for doing so drives the perky first act of this featherweight adaptation from director Anthony Fabian . (Gallico’s thin but well-liked book previously spawned three sequels, a 1992 TV movie starring Angela Lansbury in the title role and a 2016 stage musical, “Flowers for Mrs. Harris.”) In the film’s fanciful way, Mrs. Harris must add winning over Mme. Colbert to the list of hurdles she must clear before acquiring a wearable work of art. Fortunately for her, nearly everyone else Mrs. Harris meets in Paris — from the affable winos at Gare du Nord to the romantically inclined Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson) — finds her just delightful.

Manville makes her so, playing Mrs. Harris as a good-natured woman who believes in luck and kindness, but also in a kind of socialist equality. “My money’s as good as anybody’s,” she insists, organizing the underappreciated artisans who actually make Dior’s dresses into an impromptu labor strike for the film’s loony climax. This finale doesn’t really work, nor does the movie’s feel-good epilogue, in which we finally see Mrs. Harris wearing Dior: While Manville is hardly frowsy, the “frock” — as Mrs. Harris refers to the more alluringly named “Temptation” gown — doesn’t have nearly the same effect on her that it did on Dior’s top model, Natasha (Alba Baptista, a gorgeous Portuguese actor whose classic appeal suggests a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Alicia Vikander).

This may be Mrs. Harris’ princess fantasy, set in a “Funny Face”-era evocation of midcentury Paris (much of it doubled on the streets of Budapest), but that whimsical spirit doesn’t seduce audiences so much as it excuses the too-convenient plotting and largely one-dimensional characterizations. Fabian’s film is charming enough, though his attempts at romance remain earthbound as he makes a clean break from the TV version, offering a different interpretation of the character.

Much as Lansbury’s Broadway version of “Mame” had nothing to do with the earlier Rosalind Russell incarnation, Manville borrows nothing from Lansbury’s performance. Manville plays Mrs. Harris as a pragmatic but also superstitious woman. She gambles on dog races and believes that her late husband has sent her on a mission to find love. Could this be her chance? Frankly, it’s more interesting to watch how Mrs. Harris inspires others, as when she encourages the budding attraction between Natasha and Dior’s awkward accountant, André (Lucas Bravo, of obvious influence “Emily in Paris”), who share an interest in Sartre’s existentialist tract “Being and Nothingness.”

For the most part, Fabian and his three co-writers (which seems rather a lot for so slight a project) have done well to boost the intellect and assertiveness of the novel’s female characters. Still, we’re miles behind the punk-infused empowerment anthem that was last year’s “Cruella.” By contrast, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” aims to please an older and decidedly more conservative demographic, dazzling them with a vintage Dior défilé: the 10th anniversary collection, handsomely re-created/re-imagined by “Cruella” costume designer Jenny Beavan.

The movie wouldn’t have been possible without Dior’s buy-in, which could explain scenes in which dresses are over-ripely described as a “poem” or a “moonbeam.” (Worth noting: Christian Dior died in 1957, and there’s no mention of Yves Saint Laurent, the prodigy who succeeded him.) Sure, there’s magic in watching a fashion masterpiece come together, though the movie ignores all the care that goes into custom-tailoring it to Mrs. Harris’ body when she gets home and loans the garment to a character with a completely different figure. One size does not fit all, no matter how much this winsome movie wishes that were so.

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Los Angeles, July 6, 2022. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 115 MIN.

Production: A Focus Features release and presentation, in association with eOne, the National Film Institute of Hungary. Producers, Guillaume Benski, Xavier Marchand, Anthony Fabian.
Crew: Director: Anthony Fabian. Screenplay: Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, Olivia Hetreed, Keith Thompson, based on the novel by Paul Gallico. Camera: Felix Wiedemann. Editor: Barney Piling. Music: Rael Jones.
With: Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Ellen Thomas, Anna Chancellor, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Rose Williams.

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‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ Review: Lesley Manville Delights in a Later-in-Life Fantasy Confection

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A housekeeper waltzing into Christian Dior and choosing a couture gown may sound like the height of fantasy, but the biggest stretch in Anthony Fabian’s “ Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris ” may be all the nice French people she meets along the way. Starring the inimitable Lesley Manville, in a role that effectively transitions the frequent Mike Leigh collaborator into the Helen Mirren phase of her career, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is a charming confection of a middle-aged, middle-class fantasy.

Imbuing the lavish period delights of “Mrs. Maisel” with a lively post-menopausal heroine “Hacks” made trendy, “Mrs. Harris” goes down like a sugary amuse-bouche of entertainment — it won’t make a lasting impression but it’s the perfect thing for the moment.

The movie begins in 1957 London, where Mrs. Ada Harris (Manville) has finally received word, after years of holding out hope, that her dear Eddie was killed in action some dozen years prior. As she goes about her usual routine, cleaning the flats of the entitled rich who regard her as nothing more than reliably good-natured help, she’s struck by the most beautiful gown she’s ever seen. “Christian Dior, five hundred pounds,” explains the pompous client who hasn’t paid her in weeks (the divine Anna Chancellor, playing a well-worn character). In her renewed grief, Mrs. Harris latches onto the idea of a Dior gown as her dream, and decides to do whatever it takes to get one.

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With this somewhat inexplicable desire motivating the rest of the movie, it often feels like it’s reaching for meaning. Even her friends, fellow housekeeper Vi (Ellen Thomas) and flirtatious bookie Archie (Jason Isaacs) don’t understand why Ada is suddenly churning out sewing work and gambling her money on dog racing. After a few unexpected windfalls, which she chalks up to signs from Eddie to pursue her dreams, Mrs. Harris is suddenly on a plane to Paris to get herself a frock. “One o’ them five hundred quid ones.”

With no plan or place to stay, she first encounters a convivial bunch of winos while sleeping at the train station. Charmed by the plucky Englishwoman, one walks her to the House of Dior, leaving her with the weighty reminder, “In France, the worker is king!” Rushing in after a model who drops her purse in a hurry, Mrs. Harris unknowingly sneaks into the presentation of Dior’s tenth anniversary collection. Unaware of the etiquette for such an elite event, she is stopped at the door by the uptight Madame Colbert (Isabelle Huppert, doing the least and killing it), who insists there is no possible way such a woman could buy a Dior gown.

Through another series of wild happy accidents, she charms her way into the show, and eventually into ordering a gown. A handsome Marquis (Lambert Wilson) invites her as his plus-one; a handsome accountant André (Lucas Bravo) invites her to stay in his flat while her dress is being fitted; and the model Natasha (Alba Baptista), who turns out to be the face of Dior, excites all the workers in the atelier with the story of the housekeeper who saved all her wages for a Dior gown.

What follows is a whirlwind week in Paris full of dancing with the Marquis, playing matchmaker for the kind young Parisians, and even leading to the solution of Dior’s money woes. If it all sound a bit ridiculous, it very much is, but it’s enjoyable, with Manville squeezing every ounce of charisma out of the quippy one liners she’s been given. Of a can-can dancer at a Moulin Rouge-like establishment, Mrs. Harris remarks bluntly: “She’s a dead ringer for my cousin Tilda! From behind.” The same joke somehow works yet again when, upon seeing the famed Monsieur Dior, she observes: “Who’s that bloke? He looks like my milkman.”

Written by a committee of four that includes “Girl with a Pearl Earring” scribe Olivia Hetreed, the screenplay often overreaches for meaning. (The film is the third adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel “Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris,” but the first to go to the big screen, versus television). The romance between André and Natasha ignites over a bastardization of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness” that is sure to offend most French people, and the fact that the only person of color is Ada’s housekeeper friend who lifts her when she’s down is both unfortunate and unfortunately not surprising. Though hardly subtle, the class solidarity through-line is the strongest part of the story, and it’s hard not to feel something when Mrs. Harris descends the stairs in her couture Dior into a neighborhood dance.

It seems that, for good people, even the silliest of dreams really can come true, and how fun to be able to watch them do just that.

Focus Features will release “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” in theaters on Friday, July 15.

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Mrs. harris goes to paris.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 7 Reviews
Kids Say 4 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Charming 1950s-set comedy drama has drinking, smoking.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 10+?

Occasional language includes "bloody," "arse," "bloomin'," "balls," and "t-ts."

Christian Dior mentioned repeatedly, scenes set at the House of Dior. Discussion

Characters drink alcohol on a number of occasions in bars, at events, and with d

Provocative cabaret shown, with performers wearing sexy costumes and making sugg

Mention of war and a plane crash. Death of partners discussed. Brief dangerous d

Any Positive Content?

Kindness can be rewarding, and selfishness doesn't pay. Friendship is important,

Mrs. Harris is kind, smart, capable. She often puts others first, but proves abl

While many gender roles are in keeping with the wartime setting, women are shown

Occasional language includes "bloody," "arse," "bloomin'," "balls," and "t-ts." "Christ" and "God" are used as exclamations. The British phrase "Gordon Bennett" is used to express surprise and frustration.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Christian Dior mentioned repeatedly, scenes set at the House of Dior. Discussion of £500 dress and expensive wedding. Some gambling is shown, including placing a bet at a horse race.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink alcohol on a number of occasions in bars, at events, and with dinner. A character drinks alcohol from a stranger's bottle in a public space. One scene involves a character missing a meeting because of a hangover. Characters smoke cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Provocative cabaret shown, with performers wearing sexy costumes and making suggestive moves. Characters kiss on the lips.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Mention of war and a plane crash. Death of partners discussed. Brief dangerous driving in the street. Two characters accidentally knock heads but are uninjured.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Kindness can be rewarding, and selfishness doesn't pay. Friendship is important, as is self-respect and perseverance. Follow your dreams.

Positive Role Models

Mrs. Harris is kind, smart, capable. She often puts others first, but proves able to stand up for what she believes in. Her best friend is supportive, encouraging, self-assured. Some strangers in Paris show kindness and an open mind; those who do not get their comeuppance.

Diverse Representations

While many gender roles are in keeping with the wartime setting, women are shown as strong and capable. Comment from an older single woman about not cleaning up after a man. Mention of older women feeling invisible. But Mrs. Harris and her friend make themselves visible by making an impact on those around them. Some racial diversity in cast, with Mrs. Harris' best friend, Vi, played by a Black actor, and further racial diversity in smaller roles. Some class snobbery is shown, but Mrs. Harris -- a cleaner -- is shown to hold her own in the Paris fashion environment.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a charming 1950s-set comedy drama, adapted from a novel of the same name, with plenty of positive messages. It follows a cleaner, Mrs. Harris ( Lesley Manville ), who sets her sights on owning a couture dress. Using her savings, along with her newly discovered war widow's pension, she travels to Paris to make her dream come true. There is some smoking, befitting the time period. Characters are also seen drinking. In one instance, a character misses work due to a hangover. The brand Dior is mentioned frequently, and there is occasional language, including "bloody," "arse," and "t-ts." The movie is generally mild and well meaning, as well as smart and funny, and will likely be enjoyed by families with older kids. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (7)
Kids say (4)

Based on 7 parent reviews

** Note the "Sex, Romance, and Nudity" rating.

For grown-ups, what's the story.

In MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, widowed cleaner Mrs. Harris ( Lesley Manville ) falls in love with her client's Dior dress and dreams of affording one of her own. But saving the money to travel to Paris is just the start of an adventure that will open her eyes to a whole new world.

Is It Any Good?

There's a strong fairytale aspect to this charming comedy drama about a kind, put-upon cleaner who works her way into the world of high fashion. And, in this case, the titular character in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris will go to the ball -- albeit a tea dance in a local hall. Manville (Oscar-nominated for her role in the 2017 dressmaking drama Phantom Thread ) makes for a sympathetic, likable character whose inner resolve shines through her subservient position in a way that will resonate with many.

Pessimists (and even realists) may need to suspend disbelief, as the plot quickly unveils a cascade of unlikely events -- particularly once Mrs. Harris hits Paris, and her worldly outlook is blinded by shiny things. Realistic, it's not. At heart it's an uplifting underdog story, where characters learn about what's important and people get their comeuppance. But it's also smart, funny, and beautiful to look at. Sets and costumes really capture the era, from Mrs. Harris' dimly lit terraced home to the glittering Paris theaters. It's a Cinderella story about kindness, courage, and being seen. About believing in a little magic -- no matter how unlikely it seems.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can discuss the representation of women in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris . How did it compare to other films set in the 1950s? Would you describe Mrs. Harris as a positive female role model? What makes a good role model ?

There are plenty of positive messages within the movie, including examples of perseverance , courage , and curiosity . Why are these such important character strengths to have?

How are drinking and smoking depicted in the film? Are they glamorized? Do you think our behavior has changed when it comes to drinking and smoking, from when the movie was set until now?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 15, 2022
On DVD or streaming : August 1, 2022
Cast : Lesley Manville , Jason Isaacs , Alba Baptista
Director : Anthony Fabian
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Focus Features
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Book Characters , Friendship , History
Character Strengths : Courage , Curiosity , Perseverance
Run time : 92 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : suggestive material, language and smoking
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : May 4, 2024

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‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ Film Review: Charm and Good Humor Fit Perfectly in This Chic Fairy Tale

Lesley Manville is marvelous as a London cleaning lady with haute-couture dreams in this exhilaratingly sweet celebration of people at their best

Good luck finding a sweeter, more innocent film in 2022: “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is a rapturous adaptation of the classic 1958 novel by Paul Gallico (“The Poseidon Adventure”), in which a kindly person pursues their goals, which are always just slightly out of reach. It’s a formula that’s custom-designed for audience satisfaction, and when it’s done right it’s nothing short of a miracle.

“Mrs. Harris,” directed by Anthony Fabian (“Louder Than Words”), tells the story of Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), a cleaning lady in 1950s London. Her husband went missing in the war, and she’s spent the last decade-and-a-half waiting for him to return, doing difficult jobs for rich people who don’t appreciate her. When word finally arrives of her husband’s fate, Ada Harris realizes it’s time to stop waiting and make her own dreams come true.

Mrs. Harris’s dream sounds much simpler than it is: She wants to buy a Christian Dior dress, an incredibly expensive purchase for which she has no practical use. She isn’t going to the Academy Awards or a royal wedding. She just thinks Christian Dior dresses are lovely, and she wants to have one — and if she scrimps and saves, she just might be able to afford it.

Lesley Manville Isabelle Huppert Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

Fabian does a lovely job crafting a world where people are delightful but circumstances are impossible. The opening act of “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is unusually long but absolutely vital, because Fabian (who co-wrote the screenplay with a trio of writers) understands that the harder it is for Mrs. Harris to actually get to Paris, the more satisfying it will be when she finally does. And the harder Mrs. Harris works, the more wonderful it feels to watch good karma come back to her and give her exactly what she wants.

The filmmakers also understand that if we, the audience, don’t share Mrs. Harris’s obsession with Christian Dior fashion, the movie won’t work on an emotional level. So infinite credit goes to costume designer Jenny Beavan (“Cruella”) for crafting impeccable and delicate dresses, and to cinematographer Felix Wiedemann for finding all the shafts of light that make them shimmer just so. The dresses in “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” aren’t just props; they’re a little bit alive, and they bounce in people’s arms with the urgency of adorable kittens who want you to adopt them.

Mrs. Harris’s story doesn’t stop when she gets the money, of course. She still has to travel to Paris, where she can’t afford a hotel room, and to get into Christian Dior wearing her everyday outfit. No small feat, since Dior prides itself on glamour and exclusivity. Standing in her way is the grumpy Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Huppert, perfectly vicious), but opening the door anyhow are Dior’s good-natured accountant, André (Lucas Bravo, “Emily in Paris”) and supermodel Natasha (Alba Baptista, “Warrior Nun”), who secretly fawn over each other.

Matters become more complicated when Mrs. Harris discovers that, even though she has enough money for the dress, the words haute couture mean she can’t just pick one up off the rack. She’s got to stay in Paris for weeks even though she’s spending every penny on a luxury item. Fortunately, her can-do spirit, good nature and helpfully meddlesome ways foster fabulous good will from (almost) everyone she meets, and after working impossibly hard for impossibly long, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” gradually fashions her with every nice thing she could possibly need.

Emily in Paris, Lucien Laviscount as Alfie, Lily Collins as Emily

It is perhaps the ultimate fantasy, that all good deeds go rewarded; making Mrs. Harris’s world just punishing enough to drive the suspense, but just decent enough to actually work out, is a balancing act that director Fabian skillfully manages throughout the entire film.

“Mrs. Harris” doesn’t pretend that the evils of the world don’t exist. The film is rife with class commentary, in sometimes surprising ways. The beautiful streets of Paris are consistently choked with garbage due to a sanitation workers’ strike. And although Dior’s rich clients scoff at Mrs. Harris for reaching above her station, the accountants are desperate to make her happy because — unlike all those wealthy royals, politicians and celebrities — she actually plans to pay them, and in cash, no less.

Lesley Manville carries the film wonderfully — with pitch-perfect assistance from Jason Isaacs, Ellen Thomas, Lambert Wilson, Huppert, Baptista and Bravo — and refuses to make even a second of her performance feel superficial or twee. If we don’t believe in Mrs. Harris, we can’t accept any part of this mid-20th century fairy tale, and we never doubt her for a second.

It is an uncommon thrill to watch a charming film that comes by its charms organically. “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” knows that fluff is much more satisfying when it has depth, so you can truly sink into it and feel the overwhelming comfort. Now let us all hope for a crossover sequel where Mrs. Harris and Paddington Bear compete to see who can be more pleasingly pleasant. (My money is on the one wearing Dior.)

“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” opens in US theaters July 15.

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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Reviews

da advocates for weaponized incompetence, women performing all the practical labor but not having any authority or a right to make any decisions. Women do not own their labor, it is owed for the world to function even when they are not respected.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2024

In the midst of high voltage blockbusters, your summer escape is here.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Mrs. Harris’ unrestrained enthusiasm for life rubs off on everyone she meets and, if they let it, that magic will rub off on the audience too.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, starring Lesley Manville, dazzles from start to finish while brimming with unparalleled hope.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2023

Manville is perfect in the title role and the film, though fanciful, is very easy to take.

Full Review | Mar 15, 2023

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS is thus a film that proves to be both a welcome distraction when judged at face value and a massive disappointment when judged against the potential of what it could have been.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 10, 2023

A pleasant, hopeful experience that could even end up bringing a couple of tears to certain members of the audience (I was VERY close to crying at one point). Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 23, 2023

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris movingly weaves a tale about finding an outer beauty that reflects the purity of heart within. It’s as pleasant as you want a movie like this to be, yet it does so without simplification that patronizes the audience.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2023

This is almost pure wish fulfilment fantasy, but it's delivered with confidence and style.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 6, 2023

...a thoroughly agreeable endeavor that benefits from the superb efforts of Manville and her various costars...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 16, 2022

It takes a lot of sophistication to keep a film like this from becoming cloying. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is the champagne of nicecore.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2022

... Makes you feel at ease, like having a snack by the stove in a cozy room. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2022

Anthony Fabian wagers the tone of the Paddington movies, with a Wes Anderson aesthetic and Mike Leigh's vindicating spirit. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 9, 2022

A film in which Manville pulls out all her weapons as a professional actress, shining well above the story she leads by herself to its happy ending. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2022

What takes it from a watch-on-a-plane movie to a must-see matinee is a galvanizing and endearing performance by Manville.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 28, 2022

There is much to be enjoyed, but this might ultimately prove too disposable for its own good. The film works best as an escapist fairytale and as such, it’s ravishing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2022

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris substitutes the yearning for a man's love with a dress. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 2, 2022

Such an endeavour won’t change the course of cinema, but, my word, will it make you feel special; and, right now, that’s more than enough of a reason to support this European excursion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 31, 2022

It's a familiar formula but that's part of the charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2022

The film’s designers spent a lot of time exploring the Dior archives and it shows. It’s Mrs Harris’s story, but it’s also a fond tribute to a world that has changed beyond recognition.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 28, 2022

Culture | Film

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris movie review: a sweet treat with a side order of socialism

“ Emily in Paris for geriatrics”. That’s what cruel commentators may be inclined to label this Cinderella -ish tale, based on a 1958 Paul Gallico novella about a Battersea cleaning lady. Luckily, with the fantastic Lesley Manville as said charwoman, nothing is quite what it seems.

The book’s Ada Harris is a selfless and gutsy widow who falls in love with one of her client’s Dior dresses. When she arrives in Paris , all set to buy a frock with her hard-earned cash, she impresses an open-minded Marquis, endears herself to practically every Dior employee she meets and is rewarded for her fairy godmother-ish ways with... flowers . She never gets to swan around in her gown. It’s gutting!

In Mrs ‘Arris goes to Paris, the spectacularly camp 90s TV movie, Angela Lansbury’s Ada has a bit more fun. She and the Marquis (Omar Sharif) scratch each other’s backs, albeit in a platonic way, and Ada gets to wear her beautiful dress, before returning to her dingy digs. The ballgown, dangling from a hanger in Ada’s London kitchen, performs a magical little jiggle. That’s the happy ending.

This time around, it’s still the 1950s, but Ada, as well as being a talented seamstress, has a working libido (she’s attracted to two men, including Lambert Wilson’s Marquis de Chassagne, who’s been royally screwed up by his upbringing). She also hangs out with fans of the left-wing intellectual, Jean-Paul Sartre, organises a workers’ strike, is defended by an out-and-proud communist and single-handedly circumvents the snobbery of Isabelle Huppert ’s Dior manager, Madame Colbert.

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris could never be mistaken for a Ken Loach polemic. But whilst showing us a lot of pretty frocks, it gets awfully close to giving the finger to feudalism.

A note on the frocks. The majority of them (whether recreations of Dior “New Look” classics or originals designed by three-time Oscar-winner Jenny Beavan) are sublime. But one dresscoat resembles a tiny and poorly assembled tent. Or a giant tea cosy. Either way, it’s horrid. Ada, thank goodness, gravitates towards two outfits cut from a different cloth and, in the film’s suspenseful last third, everything works out in a way that’s utterly delightful.

Years ago, when I told a friend I was naming my daughter, Ada, they were horrified and said, “That sounds like the name of a cleaning lady!” Here’s to Manville’s Ada, a woman who knows you’re never too old – or too working class – to be one of the happiest belles at the ball.

115mins, cert PG

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Entertainment
<i>Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris</i> Is the Rare Movie That Values the Mere Idea of Beauty

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Is the Rare Movie That Values the Mere Idea of Beauty

W atching Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is like stepping through a portal in time—not back to the 1950s, the movie’s setting, but to the 1990s, when sweet-natured, visually resplendent pictures like this were plentiful. In this adaptation of a popular 1958 novel by Paul Gallico, kindhearted London cleaning woman Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), a war widow, falls in love with a client’s swoon-worthy Christian Dior gown and vows to buy one for herself, even though the price is far beyond her means. With some luck, she scrapes the money together and treks to Paris, where she’s at first rebuffed by the master’s right-hand woman (a frosty-chic Isabelle Huppert), only to win over everyone at the house with her forthright warmth.

This is a story about following one’s dreams and then learning there’s a lesson attached to those dreams—you might catch more than a perfume whiff of sanctimoniousness here. But it’s rare to find movies that value the mere idea of beauty, and this one—directed by Anthony Fabian—does so unapologetically. For some of us, the words 1950s couture fashion show are tantamount to summoning a cat with “Here, kitty-kitty,” and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris does not disappoint: the film was made with Dior’s cooperation, and the featured garments are so gorgeously detailed, you might wish to examine them at close range.

Manville’s performance has a similar understated elegance. Her Ada is uncompromising not just in her fashion sense but also in defining her own happiness. If she has all the twinkling charm of the nighttime Eiffel Tower, she also stands just as proud. In the end, Ada creates her own enchantment. The dress is just a red herring—albeit a gorgeous one.

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‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ Review: High Fashion for the Humble

This inspirational comedy starring Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert trades in a similar kind of British coziness as the “Paddington” movies, though it’s not nearly as effective.

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By Beatrice Loayza

In “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Lesley Manville returns to the world of high fashion in a reversal of her Oscar-nominated role in “Phantom Thread.” Her deliciously frigid character in that film — the forbidding manager of a British fashion house and foe to Vicky Krieps’s lowborn muse — would go catatonic were Manville’s Mrs. Ada Harris to waltz into the fitting room, asking for a “frock” with her cockney drawl.

Unsurprisingly, the formidable Manville pulls off the switcheroo, instilling her role as the genial cleaning lady with a tenderness and grace that far surpasses the feel-good pish-posh that is the film around her.

Directed by Anthony Fabian, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” trades in a similar kind of British coziness as the “Paddington” movies, though it’s not as zany or funny.

Mrs. Harris, a widow toiling away in the service of the postwar London elite, has her eyes set on a custom Dior gown and, after a series of fortunate events, heads to Paris to retrieve the garment of her dreams. Despite having found the cash, our heroine must contend with the menacing Madame Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) and the snooty mores of the biz and its patrons.

For the other world-weary employees — the kindly, philosophizing model Natasha (Alba Baptista), the lovesick accountant André (Lucas Bravo) — Mrs. Harris proves single-handedly that the rules of society aren’t necessarily ironclad. If a humble maid can get her hands on a dress that costs 600 pounds, what’s stopping Natasha from pursuing an intellectual life, or André from revolutionizing the company to appeal to women from all walks of life?

The trope of the laughably frumpy worker bee, filled with optimism and quiet wisdom, is demeaning, and Mrs. Harris’s iteration is no exception. Despite its gleeful showcasing of beautiful clothes and vibrant midcentury Parisian sights, the film is caught between its fantasies and its principles, landing somewhere more annoyingly clueless — and dull — than it ought to be.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.

Sierra / Affinity

Summary A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris which will change not only her own outlook, but the very future of the House of Dior.

Directed By : Anthony Fabian

Written By : Paul Gallico, Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, Keith Thompson

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

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Lesley manville and isabelle huppert in ‘mrs. harris goes to paris’: film review.

A widowed cleaning lady in late 1950s London pursues her dream to own a haute couture Dior gown in this middle-aged Cinderella story, adapted from the Paul Gallico novel.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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There’s a wonderful symmetry to the lead casting of Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris , playing a woman who’s the flipside of Cyril, her role in Phantom Thread . That character glided around a mid-’50s London couture atelier with icy ownership, fiercely protective of her dress designer brother and his classical creations. As Mrs. Harris, Manville dreams of accessing a similarly privileged world of sartorial splendor, one in which her age and class make her seem an unlikely interloper. The beauty of her performance in this delightful fairy tale for grown-ups is the way in which her purity of heart and inherent goodness gently pry open those closed doors.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Release date : Friday, July 15 Cast : Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Ellen Thomas, Rose Williams, Jason Isaacs Director : Anthony Fabian Screenwriters : Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, Olivia Hetreed, Keith Thompson, based on the novel by Paul Gallico

What makes Ada Harris such a lovely character is that she’s not an arriviste. Rather than an aspirational climber, she’s a woman who makes no attempt to disguise her background as a house cleaner making a living scrubbing the floors and scouring the bathrooms of well-heeled Londoners. But when she gets a glimpse of a shimmering couture gown from the House of Dior, purchased by one posh client (Anna Chancellor) who keeps crying poor when it comes time to settle her household accounts, Mrs. Harris starts daydreaming about how it would feel to own such a dress herself.

Having finally received confirmation in 1957 of the death of her beloved RAF pilot husband, Eddie, shot down near Warsaw 12 years earlier, Mrs. Harris could use a touch of grace, even magic in her life. But the movie goes beyond Mrs. Harris’ circumstances to champion the right of all invisible women to be seen and appreciated as individuals, every bit as entitled to swathe themselves in drop-dead glamour and sensuality as the flawless beauties who model the clothes in the exclusive Dior salon on Paris’ Avenue Montaigne.

The early action is set in a fogbound storybook London, where Mrs. Harris shuffles off to work every morning on the bus in the predawn hours with her best friend and neighbor, Vi (Ellen Thomas). There’s an understated touched-by-an-angel aspect in the details of how she accumulates the then-outrageous sum of 500 pounds that a Dior dress would cost. Mrs. Harris achieves this through a series of charmed windfalls, setbacks, happy accidents and the helping hand of a raffish bookmaker acquaintance, Archie ( Jason Isaacs ).

She arrives in Paris believing that a Dior acquisition will be as straightforward as buying a frock from Woolworth’s, but soon learns that tailoring, measurements and fitting will take weeks. That’s if she can get past the snooty gatekeeper, Madame Colbert ( Isabelle Huppert ), who shudders at the idea of a common charwoman wearing haute couture.

With the help of chivalrous Anglophile the Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), Mrs. Harris gets a front-row showroom seat for the debut of Dior’s 10th anniversary collection. That sequence will induce swoons for anyone interested in fashion history.

The dresses include re-created originals from the House of Dior (the maison collaborated with the production) and stunning elaborations by costume designer Jenny Beavan. While the presence of models of color is a concession to contemporary audiences, the exclusive défilé is a transporting step back in time, with cinematographer Felix Wiedemann cleverly using Hitchcock’s dolly zoom (the first of multiple times that variations on the shot are employed) to convey Mrs. Harris’ rapture.

As in every iteration of the Cinderella story, Mrs. Harris has “fairies” to help her overcome the many obstacles to owning a Dior gown. The company’s shy accountant André Fauvel (played by Emily in Paris ’ Lucas Bravo in the tradition of the total babe no one notices behind his glasses) offers her a place to stay in his Montmartre hilltop apartment and invites her to borrow his absent sister’s wardrobe. Gorgeous model Natasha (Alba Baptista), the “face of Dior,” responds to her kindness with friendship, whizzing her across town in her glamorous red Renault Caravelle convertible. And showroom assistant Marguerite (Roxane Duran) acts as a buffer with haughty head tailor Monsieur Carré (Bertrand Poncet), while Mrs. Harris endears herself to the hive of seamstresses.

The switch in the screenplay by Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, Olivia Hetreed and Keith Thompson is that Mrs. Harris herself becomes the fairy godmother. She nudges André to overcome his feelings of unworthiness and declare his affections for Natasha, whose passion for Sartre and the existentialists is just one sign that she’s squirming on her pedestal and starved for an intellectual life. And Mrs. Harris pays attention when a friendly wino tells her, “In France, the worker is king,” becoming an unlikely labor leader when the cash-strapped House of Dior is forced to cut staff. This enables her also to push André forward with his progressive ideas about democratizing high fashion, while causing sparks with Mme. Colbert that end with the two adversaries as proto-feminist allies.

Director Fabian and his co-writers have a knack for making the most potentially pandering or sentimental developments go down like a delectable sorbet, so much so that even such glaring anachronisms as Mrs. Harris’ “You go, girl” affirmation are endearing. And although they keep Gallico’s original somber outcome concerning Mrs. Harris’ gown and her generous gesture to ditzy London starlet Pamela Penrose (Rose Williams), they add an uplifting coda that goes full fairy tale, even dropping a tantalizing hint that it’s not too late for Mrs. Harris to find a new love. The buoyant waltz themes of Rael Jones’ score fit the material to perfection.

Distinguished veteran Luciana Arrighi’s pretty production design blends seamlessly with subtle CG work to re-create a Paris that evokes the city’s magnificent cinematic past, notably so in a walk along the Seine dappled in bewitching evening light. The movie is a love letter to the French capital and its halls of fashion, so naturally, its sense of style is impeccable. It’s conceivable that Baptista’s side-part bangs and bouncy curled ponytail could inspire many imitators.

But the human element is what ultimately sells it. Baptista and Bravo make a captivating pair, their characters clearly destined to open up each other’s lives. Isaacs is a roguish charmer, Thomas is jolly warmth personified, and Wilson makes a dashing aristocrat whose unintentional slight toward Mrs. Harris helps reveal her refusal to be merely everyone’s support vessel, with no needs or desires of her own.

Huppert is at her witheringly imperious best, more or less playing the French counterpart to Manville’s Cyril in Phantom Thread , which makes her eventual display of fragility all the more touching. But this is Manville’s film, a too-rare star vehicle in which one of England’s most invaluable actors carries us effortlessly on the wings of Mrs. Harris’ dream of egalitarian elegance.

Full credits

Distribution: Focus Features Production companies: Superbe Films, Moonriver, Hero Squared Cast: Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Ellen Thomas, Rose Williams, Jason Isaacs, Anna Chancellor, Christian McKay, Freddie Fox, Bertrand Poncet, Roxane Duran, Guilaine Londez, Philippe Bertin, Vincent Martin Director: Anthony Fabian Screenwriters: Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, Olivia Hetreed, Keith Thompson, based on the novel by Paul Gallico Producers: Anthony Fabian, Xavier Marchand, Guillaume Benski Executive producers: Phillippe Carcassonne, Beata Saboova, Rima Horton, Jen Gorton, Ilda Diffley, Lesley Manville Director of photography: Felix Wiedemann Production designer: Luciana Arrighi Costume designer: Jenny Beavan Music: Rael Jones Editor: Barney Pilling Visual effects supervisor: Nikolas D’Andrade Casting: Andy Pryor, Mathilde Snodgrass

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Mrs Harris Goes To Paris Review

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris

There’s a Paddington -y loveliness to Anthony Fabian’s adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel. It takes place in a world where everything is simplistic, good guys always win and sadness can be quickly banished with a chirpy one-liner and a nice cup of tea. Like that film, its storybook world is so well drawn and its sense of humour so infectious that it’s near impossible not to fall for its upbeat charms.

The plot is a delicate whisp of a thing: in 1957, Ada Harris ( Lesley Manville ) is a widowed cleaner who asks very little from the world. One day, while tidying the wardrobe of an extravagant client (an enjoyably haughty Anna Chancellor ), Mrs Harris comes face-to-bodice with a Christian Dior gown. It’s instant love. The world turns to soft focus. She must have one of her own, even though they cost £500. Once she’s found the money, Mrs Harris heads to Paris and delights most of the city with her salt-of-the-earth cheer.

Lesley Manville plays Harris as a woman who remains cheerful through force of will.

The film has enormous fun with Harris sorting out the world of haute couture in the same way she might straighten up a living room. She marches smartly into Dior, calling their sumptuous creations “frocks” and sending everyone into a tizz. The Parisian cast are a collection of clichés. A model bored with being just a pretty face. An unfeasibly handsome, Sartre-reading accountant who’s shyly in love with said model. A tailor who shrieks “C’est impossible!” or similar every time Mrs Harris appears in his workroom. They couldn’t be more cartoonishly French if they arrived at work on bicycles with a string of onions round their neck — yet the script isn’t mocking them, showing limitless affection for these sketches. As do the actors — especially Isabelle Huppert, withering all before her as Dior’s manager.

All this pretty puff is securely anchored by a fabulous Lesley Manville. She plays Harris as a woman who remains cheerful through force of will. Life keeps trying to knock her over but she refuses to budge. Mrs Harris’ little adventure and her dream may be silly, but this lovely film treats that silliness as a commendable goal. When everything’s grim why not dream of a little silliness?

Movies | 28 04 2022

MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS – Review

Mid-century high fashion and an irresistibly charming Lesley Manville add sparkle to the sweet, light-as-air MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, an uplifting tale in which an older British house cleaner falls in love with a Dior dress and decides she must have one of her own. It is a grown-up fairy-tale that fits neatly into a familiar genre of British films dealing with the divide between the working class and the aristocratic one. Set in 1957, MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS also showcases mid-century couture fashion, with recreations of actual Christian Dior period dress designs, with other visual delights by costume designer Jenny Beavan, the creative force behind the fashions in last year’s CRUELLA.

An outstanding and nuanced performance by Lesley Manville lifts this film, and along with the wonderful mid-century period fashions, is the major enjoyment and reason to see this film, which is a sweet but unsurprising feel-good fantasy, despite a team of writers who tried to interject a little reality, with mixed results. Fans of Mike Leigh’s films and British dramas already know how excellent the talented Lesley Manville is, but she gained some wider recognition for her Oscar-nominated turn in PHANTON THREAD and hopefully with this film, that rise in recognition will continue.

In 1957 London, Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) has been waiting for her beloved husband Eddie to return from WWII, ever since the plane he was flying was shot down. Twelve years later, he still is listed as missing-in-action and Mrs Harris continues to hope for his return, as she ekes out a living by cheerfully cleaning the homes of more affluent people who hardly have any awareness of her beyond her job. The days of this sweet, kindly, unassuming working-class woman revolve around her work and life in her tiny basement apartment, although her lively best friend, neighbor and fellow cleaner Vi (Ellen Thomas) tries to draw her out.

One day, while cleaning the home of an aristocratic but cash-strapped client, the wife (Anna Chancellor) shows Mrs. Harris a beautiful Dior dress she just bought for an upcoming social event, despite being several weeks in arrears to her cleaner, a 500-pound purchase she plans to conceal from her husband. Instantly, Mrs Harris is smitten by the dazzling dress, and despite the high price, she determines to buy one for herself, as her one splurge in her drab life.

That she has nowhere to wear such a fancy dress does not matter to Mrs Harris. She sets out to scrimp and scrub to raise the money to buy her own Dior couture dress, despite the absurdity of a working-class cleaner spending her money to own such a expensive frock. That she has nowhere to wear a couture dress is brought up to her over and over again as she shares her dream, but it does nothing to dampen her ambition or ardor. With help from with her friend Vi (Ellen Thomas) and a roguish Irish bookie named Archie (Jason Isaacs), Mrs Harris finds a way to try to make her dream come through. After a few set-backs and some strokes of good luck, Mrs Harris does head for Paris and the House of Dior.

There is a lot of wish-fulfillment fantasy in director Anthony Fabian’s tale of later-life dreams, based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico. This is not the first filmed adaptation of Gallico’s story – in fact, it is one of several tellings of this working-class, middle-age fantasy. However, co-writers Carroll Cartwright, Olivia Hetreed and Keith Thompson worked on the script to inject some surprising, even sobering, moments of reality into the fairy tale sweetness, although with mixed results.

One of the refreshing parts of this story is Mrs. Harris’ single ambition. The down-to-earth Londoner only dreams of owning a fabulous dress, not remaking her life, social-climbing or finding late-life love. This gives her a freshness and grounding that Manville uses to give the character depth as well as making her lovable and inspirational. Of course, some of those other possibilities are raised along the way, but Manville’s performance elevates the character above the script.

Once in Paris, some of the script’s mix of reality and fantasy crops up, with the clueless, optimistic Mrs. Harris having no idea how to even get to House of Dior, much less any awareness of the audacity of her plan to simply walk in. But Manville ensures we can’t help both believe what happens and be charmed and amused by her character’s pluck, as her good-natured directness and kindness win her allies to help her to do just that.

But there are obstacles to overcome. Isabelle Huppert plays Dior’s stern manager and gatekeeper, Claudine Colbert, who tries to head off the working-class widow when Ada Harris tries to sit in on a showing of the new Dior collection. Huppert’s gatekeeper is overruled by a wealthy patron, the Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), an Anglophile widower, who offers Mrs. Harris a spot as his plus-one as well as his arm, and by the surprising fact that the charwoman is planning to pay with cash – and flashes the bills to prove it – which persuades Dior’s accountant Andre (Lucas Bravo, EMILY IN PARIS) and even the designer himself (Philippe Bertin) to let her in, as cash-flow has been a bit of an issue of late.

Of course, we get a fashion show, and here costume designer Jenny Beavan gets to shine as audiences are treated to eye-candy in the form of diverse and gorgeous models in flood of beautiful period Dior couture, dresses recreated with the cooperation of House of Dior from their archival collections. Beavan supplements those visual delights with her own luscious designs, making the whole Paris sequence particularly colorful and visually pleasing.

Mrs. Harris expected she could pick out her couture frock and then zip back home, clueless about the need for fittings for the custom dress. But like in any good fairy tale, she gets help. Accountant Andre who offers her the use of his absent sister’s room in the Montmartre apartment they share, and she gets a ride there from model Natasha (Alba Baptista), whom the kindly Englishwoman helped when the model stumbled while rushing into the design house entrance, and who it turns out is the “face of Dior.” While arriving for daily fittings, Mrs. Harris endears herself to the Dior staff, particularly the seamstresses and ordinary workers (and being handy with a needle herself, even helps out a bit), becoming a kind of folk hero to them. However, the top tailor, Monsieur Carré (Bertrand Poncet), is less taken with the frank British cleaner, who makes no attempt to conceal her working class background, but Mrs. Harris is aided by showroom assistant Marguerite (Roxane Duran) who sees the positive effect the unstoppable Ada Harris has on the staff, and intercedes between the haughty master fitter and the working-class client.

Isabelle Huppert’s character is Mrs Harris’ nemesis but ironically, Manville nabbed her Oscar nom for her performance as a similarly chilly gatekeeper to a house of fashion in PHANTOM THREAD. An indication of Manville’s remarkable level of acting skill is in the smooth ease with which she fits into each role. While some have long been well aware of Manville’s considerable talents, PHANTOM THREAD raised the underappreciated Manville’s profile more generally, and hopefully she will at some point gain the same kind of recognition given similar talents like Judi Dench and Helen Mirren. In fact Manville’s performance far exceeds the film she’s in, exploring nuances and aspects of that character well beyond the simple plot.

All the supporting cast are good, although Huppert’s character is so brittle that she does not work as well as a foil for Manville as might be hoped. Lambert Wilson’s Marquis offers a hint of romantic possibility for Mrs Harris, and Lucas Bravo as shy accountant Andre and Alba Baptista as model Natasha offer a little budding romance, although their discussions of Sartre veer rather towards cringe-worthy. Ellen Thomas as Ada’s Caribbean-born pal and Jason Isaacs as an Irish charmer do well as Ada’s friends, although hampered by some unfortunate datedness in the characters.

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS is a feel-good, all-ages tale with an uplifting and inspiring message, that might be too saccharine for some but which is elevated tremendously by a wonderful performance by Lesley Manville and also is filled with gorgeous delights for fashionistas.

MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS opens in theaters on Friday, July 15.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Review by brian eggert july 11, 2022.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is the blithely playful title for director Anthony Fabian’s charming Cinderella story set in the world of 1950s haute couture. It’s a film about a romantic, played by Lesley Manville, whose daydreams mount into a heartwarming tale that’s bound to cause laughter, swooning, and tears of joy. Manville lends her boundless humanity to Ada Harris, a widowed cleaning lady from London accustomed to selflessly maintaining the lives of others. After seeing a Christian Dior dress in a client’s home, she imagines owning one herself, and as her superstitions and providence align, she gets the opportunity. Although the story hits familiar beats and ends up, in a roundabout way, where one might predict, Fabian’s generous treatment of his subject and characters reaches beyond superficial beauty or storybook simplicity. Instead, the film considers an uncommon and winning blend of fantasy, reality, and even philosophy. While Disney continues to mine classical fairy tales in animation and live-action to hollow effect, here’s a film that transports the viewer into a twinkling fable, yet it never forgets about the emotional integrity of its characters, even while delivering a gleeful delight.

Adapted from the book by Paul Gallico, who wrote an entire series of “Mrs. ’Arris” stories that follow the titular character around the world on modest adventures, the film is a classically structured enchantment. Fabian, who co-wrote the script alongside Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed, imbues the material with a dreamy sense of fantasy-come-true. Set in 1957, Mrs. Harris lives a routine life. She cleans the homes of a few clients each week, ranging from a well-to-do bachelor (Christian McKay) to a flighty ingénue (Rose Williams). Each morning before daylight, she walks along the luminescent Albert Bridge and gazes down at the Thames, yearning for more. When she’s not cleaning, she’s either alone at home or out with her fellow cleaning lady, Vi (Ellen Thomas), or chatting with the incorrigible pub regular, Archie (Jason Isaacs). Her husband disappeared in Poland in 1944, and she’s been alone ever since. Somehow, she has held out hope that he’s still alive. But when the film opens, she receives a package containing his wedding ring and a final confirmation of his death. Still, there’s room to dream. Another client, the shallow Lady Dant (Anna Chancellor), spends £500 on a new Dior dress instead of paying Mrs. Harris her back wages. Nonpayment aside, the sight of the gown leaves Mrs. Harris overcome and transported by its beauty.

Expect leaky tear ducts early in the proceedings, as a series of fateful events align the universe in Mrs. Harris’ favor. She saves up enough money to travel to Paris overnight and buy a House of Dior dress for herself. Of course, it’s not quite that simple, as explained by the snooty manager, Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Huppert), the evil stepmother of Dior. For starters, the highfalutin Colbert looks down on Mrs. Harris for her inferior class appearance and quickly assesses that she doesn’t belong. Several others come to her rescue, including Dior accountant André Fauvel (Lucas Bravo) and model Natasha (Alba Baptista). Also in attendance at the showing is the widower Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson), who personally invites Mrs. Harris inside, seeing that she’s come a long way and, what’s more, has the cash in hand for a dress. But Dior’s highbrow clientele cherish their exclusivity and stick their noses up at Mrs. Harris, who learns she must undergo weeks of fittings before her purchase is complete. With the further kindnesses from Fauvel and Natasha, Mrs. Harris arranges to stay and sample Parisian nightlife while waiting for the Dior staff to complete her dress.

No stranger to cinematic depictions of high fashion after her Oscar-nominated role in Phantom Thread (2017), Manville, who also executive produced, gives one of her most endearing performances in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris . Her acting has all the dimension and layering of her appearances in Mike Leigh’s cinema, and that presents a compelling series of contrasts given the fanciful nature of the story. Manville endears us to Mrs. Harris, rendering every characteristic and emotion true, and her distinctly British sense of humor supplies a constant source of laughs. When she’s happy, we’re brimming along with her. If she feels slighted, we feel it through her performance and the other characters who empathize with her. When fate works in her favor, again and again, it’s less a contrivance than an overwhelming pleasure that fills us with happiness. Under Fabian’s pitch-perfect control of tone, each of the actors manages to maintain emotional reality within the fairy tale quality of the story, offering a chimerical turn of events that never betrays the integrity of their characters or strains believability. This weaves elegantly into the film’s Sartrean theme about Dior’s need to move from an exclusively Paris-based house for the super-rich, who often do not pay their bills on time or at all, to a brand that’s accessible to everyone.

The look of the film balances reality and fantasy as well. Cinematographer Felix Wiedemann captures the streets of Paris littered with refuse from a garbage worker’s strike. Kindly winos in a depot and Mrs. Harris’ modest apartment have the gruff reality of something more grounded and earthbound. In contrast, the film quickly loses itself in our protagonists’ starry-eyed bliss in the presence of a Dior dress. When she sees such beauty, Mrs. Harris loses herself for a moment. Fabian and Wiedemann borrow Spike Lee’s oft-used double dolly shot, where the camera and actor rest on the same dolly that moves through a space, creating an impression that the character is being pulled toward something with a sense of disembodied purpose. Brief flourishes such as this break from the otherwise straightforward historical setting and transform the film into a euphoric experience. The filmmakers see fashion through Mrs. Harris’ subjective perspective, and it’s contagious. Wiedemann shoots the lovely and varied gowns from the period, provided by the House of Dior no less, with evident affection for their refinement. A fashion exhibition sequence early on rivals the one in George Cukor’s The Women (1939), and seen through Mrs. Harris’ eyes, it’s blissful.

At the core of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a humanist message about seeing beyond class and labels. Colbert asks Mrs. Harris, “How will you give this dress the life it deserves?” But it’s not about living up to the Dior standard; it’s about recognizing that everyone deserves to feel like they belong in such luxury. The filmmakers have integrated that theme into a critique of class and storybook tropes by applying them to the workaday protagonist. Indeed, the third act introduces conflict that threatens to make Mrs. Harris the fairy godmother of her own story, but an airy solution delivers a magnificent ending. If you’re not a sloppy mess by the final scene, laughing and crying along with its felicity, seek help. Anchored by Manville’s beautifully nuanced and sunny performance (and those of the supporting cast), assured direction by Fabian, and a gorgeous production design by Luciana Arrighi, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a surprise and a pleasure. Its warmth and tenderness result in a marvelous, romantic, touching, funny, and deeply satisfying film that’s not to be missed.

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Movie Review – Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

December 19, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris , 2022.

Directed by Anthony Fabian. Starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lucas Bravo, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Anna Chancellor, Rose Williams, Ellen Thomas, Jason Isaacs, Roxane Duran, Freddie Fox, Christian McKay, Delroy Atkinson, Guilaine Londez, Dorottya Ilosvai, Sarah Rickman, Balázs Csémy, and Philippe Bertin.

A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own.

In Mrs Harris Goes to Paris , some characters want to be seen, and others find the fashion modeling world awkward. Take the titular Mrs. Harris (an all-smiles, optimistically charming turn from Lesley Manville), an overly kind cleaning lady that wants to use some of the money owed to her (her husband died in World War II) to visit Paris and purchase a Dior dress.

She’s not necessarily looking to adorn the beautiful garments (Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan does yet another tremendous job crafting outfits full of vibrancy, color, and clever designs) for anyone or during a special occasion. It just happens to be something that will make her happy, probably bring back memories of her youth, and function as a healthy coping mechanism after finally facing the reality that her husband is not coming home.

Fortunately, Mrs. Harris also has a wonderful support group of friends (including characters played by Ellen Thomas and Jason Isaacs) that encourage her to chase this dream while helping out with funds wherever they can (there’s an amusing gambling segment encapsulating the British humor and story trajectory one might expect here). However, once she gets to the House of Dior in Paris, the establishment is mostly unwelcoming and built on exclusivity. Isabelle Huppert’s condescending Claudine Colbert assumes there must be some mistake and that there’s no way a lowly cleaner would be able to sit in on one of the auctions.

While that rivalry brews, Mrs. Harris also meets an assortment of characters that are helpful to her, with her imparting wisdom and return. The most interesting of the bunch involves a man crushing on one of the models, a woman that doesn’t find the experience fulfilling and would rather be home reading a book. They bond over philosophical conversations with Mrs. Harris, eventually giving a slight push for them to confess their feelings to one another.

To Mrs. Harris’ surprise, the working conditions at Dior are taxing and nowhere near glamorous, seemingly almost as drab as housekeeper work. The company will not remain financially profitable if the fashion outlet doesn’t become inclusive in sales. That said, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris also sees the protagonists take on an activist role, fighting for a fair working environment and less classism.

Most of these subplots involve likable characters and some fine antagonistic work from Isabelle Huppert, but at times, it feels like too much is going on (director Anthony Fabian adopts the novel from Paul Gallico alongside Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed). This becomes clear, especially during the last 30 minutes or so, where Mrs Harris Goes to Paris has so much to wrap up, with many of its character endings missing an emotional spark.

Thankfully, the character growth of Mrs. Harris herself is usually compelling; she’s a woman battling classism, labels, and sadness and is sometimes her own worst enemy considering she is often too generous of a person. Throw in some stunning dresses and photography, and there’s absolutely enough reason to go to a theater to watch Mrs. Harris go to Paris .

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Isabelle huppert, lambert wilson, alba baptista, lucas bravo, ellen thomas, rose williams, jason isaacs, seasons (4).

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Season 2 (2018), season 3 (2022), season 4 (2026), screenrant reviews, mrs. harris goes to paris review: lesley manville shines in wholesome 1950s tale.

Led by a great Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a delightfully wholesome film and the very definition of a "feel good" story.

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Mrs. harris goes to paris.

100 Movie Nation Roger Moore Movie Nation Roger Moore Not to gush or go too far overboard, but the warmth of a movie like “Mrs. Harris” is downright restorative in the viewing, two escapist hours that remind us that everyone is entitled to courtesy, a fair shake and a little beauty and luxury, and most of all, the hope that life can get better.
80 The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney This is Manville’s film, a too-rare star vehicle in which one of England’s most invaluable actors carries us effortlessly on the wings of Mrs. Harris’ dream of egalitarian elegance.
75 New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott Pure cinematic fluff, the kind of film that tends to evaporate within a few hours of seeing it. That being said, Manville is so charming, and the rest of Fabian’s film is so well meaning, and so well realized, that by the time it hits its inevitable third-act moment, it’s hard not to be swept up by the joy of it all.
75 The A.V. Club Leigh Monson The A.V. Club Leigh Monson In the tradition of Britain’s class comedies, what makes Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris comes down to the difference between, say, your average fashion designer and someone like Dior: with a pattern, anyone can make clothes—but in Manville’s hands, she stitches together something magical.
70 Screen Daily Tim Grierson Screen Daily Tim Grierson Lit from within by the sunny disposition of its main character, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris is a lovely, modest ode to kindness, anchored by Lesley Manville’s considered performance as a housekeeper who is tired of feeling invisible.
70 Screen Rant Rachel LaBonte Screen Rant Rachel LaBonte Led by a great Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a delightfully wholesome film and the very definition of a "feel good" story.
63 Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips If director Fabian’s touch is a little heavy and coy, the actors lighten it every preordained step of the way. A lot of folks will enjoy the wish-fulfillment. We need it: Not a lot in the real world right now is fully cooperating in that regard.
60 Variety Peter Debruge Variety Peter Debruge Fabian’s film is charming enough, though his attempts at romance remain earthbound as he makes a clean break from the TV version, offering a different interpretation of the character.
50 San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle This world of entirely nice people seems like a trite fantasy — trite because the movie never makes you believe it. But it does makes you want to believe it, and so, like a lot of these movies, it takes you halfway there.
50 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Johanna Schneller The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Johanna Schneller The bargain-basement knock-off of this movie, minus Manville and Dior, would not look out of place on Lifetime or Hallmark.
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Writer-director Anthony Fabian takes his audience on a giddy trip around Paris and the would of haute couture in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. Despite the fact the film is based on Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel Mrs ’Arris Goes to Paris, its closest relative seems to be the recent Netflix series Emily in Paris .

The two productions share the same sense of Paris as a magical place where dreams come true. And while the French capital is magical in many ways, their rose-tinted views of it both rather cloying, and at odds with reality. Like Emily, Mrs Harris never sets foot outside the gilded heart of Paris; and even the trash in the street (the film takes place during a garbage workers’ strike) seems to only add to its mythos.

The Mrs Harris of the title is Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), a cleaner living in London in the early 1950s. She works tirelessly but is still waiting for news of her husband Eddie, who went missing during WWII. One day while working for the rather dodgy Lady Dant (Anna Chancellor) she comes across a Dior dress in the wardrobe. Entranced, she sets her heart on getting one for herself. Her best friend Violet Butterfield (Ellen Thomas) is supportive, even though she doesn’t really see the point of such extravagance. Ada starts saving every penny she can. However, an ill-fated attempt at a windfall via charming local bookie Archie (Jason Isaacs) seems to set her back considerably – as does the news that Eddie has been confirmed dead. However, a series of lucky breaks fall Ada’s way, and soon she’s on a plane to Paris.

Her planning however hasn’t been great and she ends up spending the night in a train station. The next day, she heads to the Dior headquarters on the Avenue Montaigne. She arrives just as a show for high-end clients is starting. Unaware she can’t just stroll into Dior and buy a dress off the rack, Ada is initially refused entry. But the kindly Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson) invites her in as his guest. After the show, Ada picks the dress she wants and offers cash payment. This is music to the ears of Dior accountant André Fauvel (Lucas Bravo) who is struggling to keep the tradition-bound house afloat. His task is made more difficult by the snooty Mme Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) who clings to the old ways. But when Ada learns that a personalised fitting will take two weeks, she’s crest-fallen since she hadn’t planned on such a long stay. But Andre is able to offer her a place to stay, and Dior model Natasha (Alba Baptista) shows her the city. So it looks like Ada’s dream will come true – but can it really be that easy?

Fabian (who also assisted with the screenplay) stays fairly true to the plot of the book, but imbues the film with a fairytale quality in preference to the novel’s overt comedy. That turns out to be the film’s greatest strength or fatal weakness, depending on your point of view. Those who can swallow the film’s artifice will probably have a better time with it than I did. I found the fact that most characters turn out to have a heart of gold (no matter how awful they’ve been previously) a bit hard to swallow. Two partic ularly odious characters get their comeuppances at the end, but it seems almost an afterthought. Fabian also wades through quite a lot of treacle to get to the tear-inducing finale.

Lesley Manville however is fabulous in the title role, even if the role isn’t nearly as juicy as her Cyril in Phantom Thread . Isabelle Huppert likewise shines in an underwritten role as Mme Colbert. Lucas Bravo (Emily in Paris) is typically charming as Flauvel; while Ellen Thomas and Alba Baptista lend solid support as Ada’s friends on either side of the English Channel. Lambert Wilson ( The Translators ) barely gets a look in as the marquis; but Jason Isaacs fares rather better as the roguish Archie.

The film looks fabulous thanks to crisp cinematography by Felix Wiedemann, augmented by Rael Jones’ jaunty score. Of course, the fashion is undoubtedly a drawcard with costume designer Jenny Beavan ( Cruella ) channelling the aesthetic of the time (a fashion parade scene being a particular highlight).

For me, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a mixed bag. While I appreciate its technical prowess, I couldn’t get past the artifice of it all. Still, if fashion, or Paris, or fairytale endings are your bag, this is probably the film for you.

David Edwards

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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television

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COMMENTS

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris movie review (2022)
Cinematically speaking, Anthony Fabian 's genial and disarming "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" is the closest you can get to that mouthwatering sweet-tooth sensation without the calories. Adapted from Paul Gallico 's 1958 novel (charmingly called "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris") by a crowded group of screenwriters that includes Carroll ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a charming and uplifting film about a woman who pursues her dream of owning a Dior dress in 1950s London and Paris. With the support of the House of Dior, this film ...
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' review: Escape the franchise movies
Review: 'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' is the perfect escape from a summer of franchise movies Lambert Wilson, from left, Lesley Manville, Guilaine Londez and Dorottya Ilosvai in a scene from ...
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' Review: How Far Would You Go for the
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' Review: How Far Would You Go for the Perfect Dior Dress? Mike Leigh regular Lesley Manville plays a modest English cleaning woman intent on owning a Christian Dior ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris: Directed by Anthony Fabian. With Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista. In 1950s London, a widowed cleaning lady falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, deciding she must have one. She embarks on an adventure to Paris that will change not only her own outlook -- but the very future of the House of Dior.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Review: A Post-Menopausal Fantasy Confection
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' Review: Lesley Manville Delights in a Later-in-Life Fantasy Confection A housekeeper waltzes into Dior in this frivolous tale full of wish fulfillment, escapism ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Movie Review
Charming 1950s-set comedy drama has drinking, smoking. Read Common Sense Media's Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris review, age rating, and parents guide.
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' is just what we need right now
Hovering over "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" is a character from another movie entirely: Cyril, the martinet-like sister Manville played in 2017's fashion-centric melodrama " Phantom Thread ."
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris Film Review: Charm and Good Humor Fit
Good luck finding a sweeter, more innocent film in 2022: "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" is a rapturous adaptation of the classic 1958 novel by Paul Gallico ("The Poseidon Adventure"), in ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 23, 2023. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris movingly weaves a tale about finding an outer beauty that reflects the purity of heart within. It's as pleasant as you ...
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris movie review: a sweet treat with a side order
The book's Ada Harris is a selfless and gutsy widow who falls in love with one of her client's Dior dresses. When she arrives in Paris, all set to buy a frock with her hard-earned cash, she ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Is an Elegant, Charming Film
W atching Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is like stepping through a portal in time—not back to the 1950s, the movie's setting, but to the 1990s, when sweet-natured, visually resplendent pictures ...
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' Review: High Fashion for the Humble
In "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," Lesley Manville returns to the world of high fashion in a reversal of her Oscar-nominated role in "Phantom Thread." Her deliciously frigid character in that ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a 2022 historical comedy drama film directed and produced by Anthony Fabian, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed. It is the third film adaptation of the 1958 novel Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris - Metacritic. Summary A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris which will change not only her own outlook, but ...
'Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris' Review: Lesley Manville Adores Dior
A widowed cleaning lady in late 1950s London pursues her dream to own a haute couture Dior gown in this middle-aged Cinderella story, adapted from the Paul Gallico novel.
Mrs Harris Goes To Paris Review
Mrs Harris Goes To Paris Review. Widowed cleaning lady Mrs Harris (Lesley Manville) doesn't ask for much, but when she sees a Christian Dior gown in a client's wardrobe, she decides she wants ...
MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS
Mid-century high fashion and an irresistibly charming Lesley Manville add sparkle to the sweet, light-as-air MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, an uplifting tale in which an older British house cleaner falls in love with a Dior dress and decides she must have one of her own. It is a grown-up fairy-tale that fits neatly into a familiar genre of British films dealing with the divide between the working ...
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Read an in-depth review and critical analysis of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris by film critic Brian Eggert on Deep Focus Review.
Movie Review
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, 2022. Directed by Anthony Fabian. Starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Lucas Bravo, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Anna Chancellor ...
Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris Summary and Synopsis
Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris follows the adventures of a widowed cleaning lady in post-war London who dreams of owning a couture Dior dress. When Ada Harris saves enough money to fulfill her wish, she embarks on a transformative journey to Paris. This film, a blend of comedy and drama, showcases her encounters with diverse characters and the impact her determination has on both her life and others.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
Led by a great Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a delightfully wholesome film and the very definition of a "feel good" story. 63. Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips. If director Fabian's touch is a little heavy and coy, the actors lighten it every preordained step of the way. A lot of folks will enjoy the wish-fulfillment.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
Writer-director Anthony Fabian takes his audience on a giddy trip around Paris and the would of haute couture in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. Despite the fact the film is based on Paul Gallico's 1958 novel Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris, its closest relative seems to be the recent Netflix series Emily in Paris.
Watch Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris. In 1950s London, a widowed cleaning lady falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, deciding she must have one of her own. ... Buy movie UHD £5.99 £3.99. More purchase options. Watchlist. Like. Not for me. ... Book reviews & recommendations: Amazon Home Services Experienced pros Happiness Guarantee : IMDb Movies ...

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