Ladies In Black (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: University hopeful Lisa (Angourie Rice) gets a job at clothing store Goode's during the Christmas season. As she connects with her co-workers Fay (Rachel Taylor), Patty (Alison McGirr) and Magda (Julia Ormond), it becomes clear that all of them have complicated relationships with those around them, ones that just might get a bit easier once they take into account who they have in their lives.
Not gonna lie, it’s kind of surreal seeing Angourie Rice in this light. I’ve pretty much kept up with her entire acting career to date, from her feature debut in These Final Hours to her international breakout role in The Nice Guys. With her character intrinsically part of a coming-of-age in the story, it’s almost like I’ve been watching this actress grow up into the rather bubbly, down-to-earth and precise person she has become. Let’s try and consider all of that in the least creepy way possible, and move right the hell on to everyone else.

Taylor works very well as the more romantic element of the main group, making for a rather adorable couple alongside Ryan Corr. And speaking of Corr, while seeing him in past films makes hearing his attempt at accent a bit awkward (he’s as European as a Brexit rally, and about as likely to make you shake your head at what is being attempted), there’s something to be said about how he lets this much charm seep through. The accent almost becomes an afterthought, as his way with the dialogue makes him too irresistible for that to be an issue.

Susie Porter and Shane “That Aussie guy who seems to be in everything nowadays” Jacobson do nicely as Lisa’s parents, with Jacobson in particular giving one of his more noteworthy performances, making for the film’s biggest character arc that isn’t pushed right into the foreground. Ormond as the main “refo” of the group works a very smooth transition as far as a likeable presence on-screen, and her scenes opposite Vincent Perez as her husband make for some of the film’s funniest moments in how well they play off of the dry wit of the script. McGirr ends up feeling the most plain out of the main-ish characters, but credit to her for getting across a lot of characterisation through sheer movement and physical acting, helped by her mostly-pleasant scenes with Luke Pegler. And then there’s Noni Hazlehurst as Miss Cartwright, the head of the store who ends up serving the all-seeing through-line character of the piece, something she handles quite admirably.

It seems that we have finally found something capable of breaking through my usual apathy towards period dramas, particularly those with unabashed fashion fixation, as this is the kind of film designed to make Aussies feel that warm wash of nostalgia. The depictions of late 50’s Sydney, from the costuming to the frequently-drab décor to the rustic framing of our landmarks (not to mention the eternal nightmare that is Luna Park’s entrance photo-bombing some of the establishing shots), it latches onto something quite innate in the national consciousness. The attempts to connect high fashion with the more humdrum Australian landscape gives a similar vibe to The Dressmaker, only the results here are far more enticing. Not only is the choice in fashion not as massive a leap as that in Dressmaker, allowing for even the classiest of frocks to fit in the spectrum of the time, the use of it amounts to more than just “wearing this will make you happy”. There’s aspects of that here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not as if that’s the only reason for the story to be as aesthetically vogue as possible.

In actuality, the mulling over dresses and nightwear and all those other things meant to attract men (most men, at any rate) ends up giving way to the film’s real intentions… and honestly, it’s kind of painful to admit that those intentions are rather necessary nowadays. Through the intertwining stories of Lisa, Fay, Patty and Magda, there is frequent mention of the presence of migrants. Or refugees. Or “refos”, as some of the characters take to calling them. Not only that, there is quite a lot of literary reference found here too, from Austen to Dickens to Moliére to Tolstoy, the latter of which ends up influencing a fair amount of the narrative. When listening to some of the characters, it’s difficult for the phrase “casually racist” to not come to mind, given the aforementioned nomenclature and the general air that the country is being overrun by these foreigners. This is not a sentiment that has changed all that much in the nearly-60-year interim between the film’s setting and now. Hell, it’s getting to the point where the words “Australian” and “racist” are starting to become one and the same in the eyes of other Western countries. Look no further than the recent furore involving that Serena Williams cartoon for a look at just how ugly things can get in the discourse over here.

But pointing all of this out is rather basic, not to mention something of a growing cliché over the last several years… or possibly decades, knowing how prevalent these issues still are. Where this film really hits its strides is when it starts doing what I’ve always considered to be what Aussie cinema does best: Looking deep into our cultural patchwork and asking what should be fairly simple questions. It plainly shows the xenophobic attitudes of some of the characters, yes, but it takes just as much time out to let the “refos” tell their own stories, most of which are tied into the fallout of World War II and how, in the midst of Europe basically crapping itself under multiple regimes, the closed-off bubble of Australia looks rather appealing.

The film even specifies how much of a bubble this country is, making it a point to bring up how this attitude towards migrants (which, again, still lingers today) is a bit wonky given our own history in even being in this country. To go further than that, it taps into the idea of “Australian class”, an oxymoron that I’ve made mention of in past reviews, and how the inclusion of foreign elements might actually give people a chance to have some class. I mean, what makes a person perceived as 'cultured' is an intake and understanding of cultures beyond the one they're born into. There’s only so much our donut of a continent can provide, and between literature, fashion, food, wine and of course the people, what’s outside of our shores could be quite beneficial for us. It’s a period piece that ends up unearthing a lot of ideas that, to be brutally honest, we as a culture would benefit from remembering.

All in all, this is another example of our national cinema doing what it does best, aided by a capital cast full of prime talent. The acting hits a couple of odd points, but mainly out of personal experience with said actors, the visuals use both tasteful fashion and rose-tinted recollection to bring us the Australia of old, and while the writing may romanticise some of our cultural attitudes from the time, it still does an awful lot of good in highlighting a lot of what makes modern discussions regarding immigration and foreign cultures so aggravating. And not only that, it goes one step further than the usual “upper-class Australiana is a myth” fare in showing the good that both us as a culture and those who wish to connect with us could benefit from such a symbiosis. With the last couple months showing this country at its political, cultural and social worst, this feels like the kind of film we need to have in cinemas right now.