Stagy farce under the shadow of approaching war in the London of the Thirties. An unemployed and all but unemployable governess stumbles, through a chance of mistaken identity, into the temp job of social secretary for a visiting American chanteuse. The underemployed Frances McDormand seems a little miscast in the title role, which is to say, for one thing, that her British accent is not up to her Minnesotan in Fargo. The cranked-up players all around her try and try to keep pace with the despotic big-band beat on the soundtrack. And fail and fail. Amy Adams, Mark Strong, Lee Pace, Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds; directed by Bharat Nalluri. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
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