海角大神

鈥淢rs. Harris Goes to Paris鈥� is a pleasingly old-fashioned movie about a London charwoman suddenly smitten by high fashion. The object of her infatuation: a dress by Dior.

Lesley Manville鈥檚 Ada Harris is certainly primed for entrancement. Although she bemoans the loss of her soldier husband, long declared missing in World War II, she鈥檚 no brooder. Despite, or perhaps because of, her lowly station in life, she has a gift for friendship. She鈥檚 that rarity in the movies 鈥� a dreamer you can actually believe in.

Based on a popular 1958 Paul Gallico novel and directed and co-written by Anthony Fabian, the film is unapologetically fanciful. In an interview, Manville described it as being 鈥渓ike a musical, without the music.鈥� At times, I wish it had been a musical. Some scenes seem ready-made for it, like the first time Ada sets eyes on the ravishing Dior dress hanging in the wardrobe of a snooty client and goes all gaga. This is when she decides she must travel to the Dior showroom in Paris to buy a gown, even if to get there means scrimping and betting at the racetrack.聽

Her ally is fellow charwoman Vi (the spirited Ellen Thomas). Their scenes together have a lived-in conviviality. When they are hanging out at a local bar, under the watchful eye of their flirty buddy Archie (Jason Isaacs), the rigors of their workday instantly evaporate. But Ada knows she deserves better in life. She tells Vi they are 鈥渋nvisible women.鈥�

Ada鈥檚 desire to be visible isn鈥檛 about vanity. She wants to own a Dior because it validates the specialness she feels about herself. There鈥檚 also a suggestion that her passion for the dress is her way of falling in love again without being unfaithful to the memory of her beloved husband.

Ada鈥檚 introduction to Paris is too conventionally mounted (perhaps because Budapest, Hungary, stands in for Paris), but because we see the city through her eyes, it has sparkle.聽

Still, when she arrives at the Dior emporium expecting to buy a dress and quickly return to London, she鈥檚 rebuffed. It鈥檚 the day of a tony fashion show, and the last thing the imperious Dior executive Madame Colbert (an expertly snippy Isabelle Huppert) wants is a working-class interloper in her midst. Undaunted, Ada dumps out her handbag full of cash and won鈥檛 back off. A kindly marquis (Lambert Wilson), who might as well have 鈥渆ligible bachelor鈥� tattooed on his forehead, comes to her rescue. So do Andr茅 (Lucas Bravo), a shy Dior assistant, and Natasha (Alba Baptista), a model for whom Andr茅 secretly pines. (Natasha would much rather read Jean-Paul Sartre鈥檚 鈥淏eing and Nothingness鈥� than preen.)聽

Because the dress Ada chooses will require time to alter, she stays on in Paris, helped along by her newfound friends. She sees the best in people, and so it seems right that she should become a matchmaker for Andr茅 and Natasha.聽

The filmmakers don鈥檛 ignore the rue that is also part of Ada鈥檚 world; they just don鈥檛 dwell on it. She may come across as a chatty English eccentric, but she has a resilience that gives the movie some much-needed ballast. When Ada leads the Dior workers in a strike for better working conditions, she鈥檚 entirely in character, just as she is when she glimpses 海角大神 Dior himself and exclaims, 鈥淗e looks like my milkman!鈥�

Manville carries it all off effortlessly. I have long admired her chameleonic gifts, in such films as 鈥淧hantom Thread,鈥� where she played the brittle sister of the fashion designer portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis, or Mike Leigh鈥檚 鈥淎ll or Nothing,鈥� where her flighty intensity seared the screen. In some ways, Manville鈥檚 performance as Ada is more challenging than either of those, for she is playing a character who, without ever descending to easy sentiment, radiates goodness. At its best, that鈥檚 what this film does too.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淢rs. Harris goes to Paris鈥� opens on July 15. It is rated聽PG for suggestive material, language, and smoking.聽