Rating: PG | Runtime: 115 minutes
Release Date: July 15th, 2022 (USA) / September 30th, 2022 (UK)
Studio: Universal Pictures International / Focus Features
Director(s): Anthony Fabian
Writer(s): Carroll Cartwright & Anthony Fabian and Keith Thompson and Olivia Hetreed / Paul Gallico (novel Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris)

Them days are over when you can treat people like scum and expect loyalty in return.

There’s a strike happening in the background of Anthony Fabian’s Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. We see the results of it every time Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) walks the French city’s streets to travel between her kind host’s flat (Lucas Bravo’s André Fauvel) and the headquarters of haute couture icon Christian Dior. Rubbish is piled everywhere. Protestors call for their boss to go to jail.

And with that backdrop also comes the somber news that Dior is heading down a similar road. Its penchant for one-of-a-kind elitism is driving its bottom-line to unsustainable heights hampered by the fact their rich clients are sometimes too busy to pay for what they’ve bought. It would therefore seem a perfect setting for a London charwoman fulfilling a dream on vacation to become the Parisian working class’s much needed revolutionary. But that would kind of ruin the mood.

The result is an ironic flip of a subplot concerning Dior’s top model’s (Alba Baptista’s Natasha) unparalleled beauty hiding a brilliant existentialist mind. Where the lesson inside the film is that you can’t judge a book by its cover, the film itself epitomizes that the cover is sometimes spot-on. Because Fabian (and, presumably, source novelist Paul Gallico) isn’t interested in actual politics. Not when Mrs. Harris is drawn as a kind woman with a heart pure enough to work for free rather than force her employers to pay what they owe.

No, instead of delivering a message worthy of true drama, this adventure chooses to portray institutions like Dior as being down-to-earth, pragmatic, and “for the people” if reasoned with. Letting Mrs. Harris turn Paris on its head with her “British humor” adds the necessary comedic flavor a realistic depiction of worker revolt simply couldn’t.

So, don’t expect anything hidden behind the curtain. This book is exactly as it seems. Whether that has anything to do with the synopsis reading “in partnership with Dior” is unknown to me, but the film (the novel was written in 1958) does play like a publicity stunt despite Manville’s wonderful performance and the romantic, if one-dimensional, notions surrounding her visit. Because we do love an implausible hero reminding the world there’s more to life than a thankless career.

Watching Ada stumble into the good graces of Dior’s misunderstood upper echelon (Natasha’s model, Fauvel’s accountant, and Isabelle Huppert’s directress) is delightfully fun. She’s everything this company isn’t and everything they should strive to cater towards to remain solvent. But some cling to the old ways too tightly while others fear fighting to evolve will only earn them a kick out the door.

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. I had a great time watching Mrs. Harris throw a wrench into French high society while also allowing herself the room to stand-up for herself and her dreams regardless of those who believe she didn’t deserve that right.

And I found myself scratching my head that the plot would take such pains to present a pro-union stance only to make it so unions aren’t needed since the aristocracy is supposedly a sensible bunch always looking out for its employees. My advice: ready a healthy suspension of disbelief so you can simply enjoy a magical realist love story that’s allergic to stakes beyond Ada getting her frock. All that rubbish in the street is apparently someone else’s problem.

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Alba Baptista stars as Natasha and Lesley Manville as Mrs. Harris in director Tony Fabian’s MRS.HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft.