At first, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris seemed like a pleasant enough flick with a promising premise and a stellar cast. And I did enjoy the film in moments. But ultimately I found its plot to be dry and I was mostly bored by the film.

In Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville plays Ada Harris, a widowed cleaning lady in the London area. While cleaning houses for wealthy people she comes across a Dior dress that she becomes obsessed with and she travels to Paris to pursue her own Dior dress. Marquis de Chassagne, played by Lambert Wilson, is one of the men associated with the Dior line and Mrs. Harris tries to build a rapport with him. Claudine Colbert, played by Isabelle Huppert, is on the staff that oversees the high-end dress department and she tries to thwart Mrs. Harris. But Mrs. Harris just wants a wonderful dress in her life—a dress that she cannot afford—to make her feel happy since she is not finding love with a man.

Lesley Manville and Lambert Wilson workwell together in Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, but throw in Isabelle Huppert and the film’s chemistry is blindsided. The over-the-top focus on the Dior dress in the film is also personification taken too far. Personification works in some films or stories, but in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris it degrades into silly fantasy.

I did find some joy in the film, mostly in the pleasant scenery and some interesting bits of characterization. But overall, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a film that simply let me down. It is dry and devoid of excitement, and it comes off as rather ridiculous and boring. A snoozer, really. I feel this may be a film that goes straight to streaming. Just two stars for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.