Ladies in black A treat in store
Review
Ladies in Black (PG, 109 mins) Directed by Bruce Beresford Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★1⁄2
We’re in Sydney.
The year is 1959 and suburban Australia is in a mild spasm of lacecurtain twitching over the ‘‘refos’’ – refugees – who have recently fled war-ruined Europe for this promised land in the South, bringing with them such horrors as food with flavour, men who cook, decent music and an interest in literature.
Playing out all this in corseted microcosm are the women who run the frocks department of Goode’s, a grand downtown department store.
The Christmas rush is coming, and so young Leslie (Lisa to her coworkers, she is played by Angourie Rice) is taken on as a ‘‘temp’’. Through her eyes, we watch as floorwalkers Fay and Patty, and the ferociously arch and urbane Magda – an emigre from Slovenia – negotiate their lives and relationships with a selection of slightly bumbling men.
Patty’s husband has vanished without explanation. Fay is bemoaning the boorishness of the local men she meets.
Meanwhile, Magda is married to an absolute peach named Stefan, who she loves so much she actually lets him believe he is in charge of the household. Lisa lives at home with her long-suffering Mum and a Dad of few words who would apparently rather just be at the pub.
Over the course of a modest running-time, Ladies in Black weaves several storylines and character arcs together. It sounds simple. But the reality is, this is an extraordinarily well-made and deeply likeable film.
Bruce Beresford, working from a screenplay based closely on Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel
Women In Black, directs proceedings with absolute precision.
There are several stories at play here, and the film is operating on a couple of levels, but Beresford makes it all seem straightforward, exquisitely balanced and superbly watchable.
Aiding Beresford enormously are a perfectly selected cast. Julia Ormond (My Week with Marilyn )is a scenery-chewing delight as Magda, bringing comic timing to die for to a well-written and rounded character.
Australian stalwart Shane Jacobson (Kenny) is a hoot as Lisa’s laconic and eventually loveable Dad.
Rachael Taylor (Jessica Jones), Alison McGirr (Home and Away) and Susie Porter (Wentworth) all turn in good shifts in support.
Films like Ladies In Black often don’t get the respect they deserve from critics who couldn’t find their way around a film set with a guide dog and a map.
But the truth is, just as pavlovas are an absolute sod to cook, so getting a light and frothy film to really sing is an extraordinarily tough task. Ladies in Black is one of the best I’ve seen in months.
This is a deftly assembled and rigorously paced showcase for some truly excellent comic writing and performances. The timely commentary on how immigration makes a country is lightly played, but unmissable.
Listen, I walked into my Wednesday night preview bone-tired and not terribly enthused about ‘‘another Aussie rom-com’’, and walked out 109 minutes later grinning and very happy to have been there. I reckon you probably will, too.
Just as pavlovas are a sod to cook, so getting a light and frothy film to really sing is an extraordinarily tough task. Ladies in Black is one of the best I’ve seen in months.