In Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville casts a charming spell as a working-class Englishwoman who falls in love with a Christian Dior dress.
Movies are often described as being all about heroes - you know, "the hero's journey" in all those How To Write A Hit Movie courses.
It's true, of course, so long as you don't get hung up on gender, or indeed on heroics.
The hero is the central figure, the one who gets where they're going - or not - who learns something - or not - and who invariably dominates the last scene.
Whoever gets the happy ending, or the unhappy ending, that's your hero.
But heroes aren't always the most interesting characters.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris has been pushed relentlessly as the feelgood movie of the year, and I'm not sure it isn't.
His name's all but forgotten now, but at one time Paul Gallico was one of the most successful writers in the world. He wrote the original Poseidon Adventure, Pride of the Yankees and particularly, the Dunkirk tear-jerker The Snow Goose.
In fact, his speciality was dishing out laughs and tears in equal measure - and his best-loved book was Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.
Following the 1992 TV movie version, starring Angela Lansbury, this new production stars Lesley Manville.
Never having read Gallico's book - about a charwoman who goes to Paris to buy a dress - this was my first opportunity to see what all the fuss was about back in the '50s.
Ada Harris lives alone in London, around 1958 or so. Her husband Eddie never came back from the war, though Ada keeps hoping that one day he may just show up.
Her best friends, fellow cleaning lady Vi and bookmaker Archie, try and get her to be realistic - both about Eddie and also the wildly expensive Christian Dior dress she covets.
The movie's trailer - which seems to have appeared before every other movie on offer for the past six months - gives some pretty obvious hints about where the story of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris may be heading.
But you'll be surprised. In fact, you'll be surprised several times.
Just as Ada decided to give up her dream - not only the cost of a Dior dress but also the trip to Paris, let alone somewhere to stay - her luck changes in an extraordinary way - including the appearance of a gift seemingly from beyond the grave.
Brace yourself, because you're going to have to get used to some sudden lurches between good news and bad news.
The secret of true feelgood movies - and Paul Gallico may have invented the genre without meaning to - isn't landing the heroine with treasure. Anyone can do that. It's more regularly taking the treasure away and seeing what happens next.
When Mrs Harris arrives at Christian Dior's fashion house, she must face the fearsome Madame Colbert, played with icy snobbery by Isabelle Huppert.
She's about to be ejected to make room for Dior's usual aristocratic clientele - including Princess Margaret, as it happens. But Mrs Harris produces something the toffs can't. Actual cash. And she also gains a champion, a dashing Marquis no less.
The deal is - possibly - done. Mrs Harris's money is certainly satisfactory, even if she isn't. But it will take a week to complete the dress. And she'll need to be available - and living in Paris - every step of the way.
How will she get by, particularly since, as Madame Colbert keeps reminding her, she's nobody?
Don't worry, you're in the safest of hands - the story still holds water 60 years on and has a terrific cast.
As well as Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert, the film boasts Jason Isaacs, French star Lambert Wilson as the Marquis, and an endearing young couple Lucas Bravo and Alba Baptista.
And the director, Anthony Fabian proves to have a deft touch in a genre that's far harder than it looks.
And the other major contributor is one of the most famous costume designers in Hollywood. Jenny Beavan has been nominated eleven times for an Oscar - she won three - and she'll likely do it again with Mrs Harris.
Who else could do justice to the world of Christian Dior in 1958?
All the way through I kept thinking how much my late Mum would have loved Mrs Harris.
In fact, I was surrounded by several people's mums having the best of times, alternately chuckling and applying their handkerchiefs.
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is very old-fashioned storytelling from a long-ago fantasy world of charwomen and milkmen, lovable bookies and toffs.
And yet, if you're in the right mood, it still casts a surprisingly effective spell.
