MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS pg

As Oakwood Cinema stalwarts will know, we tend to avoid putting on ‘Christmas’ films at Christmas - as there are only so many times you can watch It’s a Wonderful Life (and it’s on TV most days in December anyway…). Instead, we tend to show a fun and diverting feel-good film which may have gone under the radar, and this year we think we have the perfect choice - Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. Set in the 1950s, it follows our heroine Mrs Harris (a widowed cleaner of humble means) as she goes from London to (you guessed it) Paris to buy a Christian Dior couture dress. Or ‘frock’, as she would say. The film offers an interesting take on class, culture and taste, but this is not an overtly ‘political’ film. Rather, it is light, charming and wonderfully diverting.

The incomparable Lesley Manville plays Mrs Harris with great energy and gusto and she is backed up by a strong cast including Isabelle Huppert, Anna Chancellor and Jason Isaacs.

Empire magazine wrote: “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.”