“Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” (PG) *** and a half

DEPENDING on where one seeks it, reliable information varies regarding how often Paul Gallico’s novel about London char-lady Ada Harris’ (Lesley Manville) must-have-at-all-cost yearning for a dress as lovely as Lady Dant’s (Anna Chancellor) 500-quid Christian Dior gown, has been filmed. 

The best answer is “several”. And in the end, it doesn’t really matter.

This time, director and (with three others) co-writer Anthony Fabian has crafted a pleasant, warm, although in some details flawed, amusement that’s almost, but not quite, a comedy. 

What matters is, is it worth seeing? And the answer, unsurprisingly, is “yes”, but with controlled expectations. 

In the northern summer of 1951, Ada’s conviction that her husband is alive and will eventually get home from the war is unshakeable. 

While she waits, she’s saving to go to Paris (with exteriors sometimes, played, apparently, by Budapest; that’s movies) to buy a copy of the gown from the Dior shop. 

Culturally and socially a fish out of water, off she goes, eventually to be welcomed by the toiling seamstresses at the Dior atelier who will, in time, make her a gown of greenish hue that delights her before breaking her heart in a mishap that’s nobody’s fault but enough to persuade the great man (he died in the following month) to build her a deep-red replacement. 

Carrying the film’s 115 minutes is no sweat for Ms Manville who, since her first role at age 18, has accumulated 116 titles including a long string of multiple-episode TV series. While playing Ada is unlikely to lead to an award (she has won 14 out of 43 nominations so far including one Oscar) watching her in her early sixties doing that is an agreeable experience. 

The journey from wanting a gown to finishing it in time for Ada to wear at a function that’s a bit above her social level isn’t all roses (although several bouquets of truly splendid English roses do grace the film). And the grand occasion is, as you might expect, a successful end to a pleasant enough tale. 

At all cinemas