Ladies in Black – Review

ladies-in-black002.jpg Director: Bruce Beresford

Runtime: 109 minutes

Due to my connections in the film world (actually, my friend just got free tickets for being a film teacher) I was able to see an advanced screening of the new Australian film Ladies in Black.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by Madeleine St John, Ladies in Black follows the lives of several young women working in retail in Sydney during 1959. While the premise may sound rather dull, it was quite a simple film with loveable characters and a realistic Australian plot.

Rachel Taylor (you may recognise as Trish Walker from Jessica Jones) plays Fay, a young woman who fits the stereotype as a beautiful yet insightful woman who can’t find any decent Australian men. While Fay’s character is sometimes frustrating, she does charm by being simple with her demeanour. Never does she claim to be an intelligent woman or someone who loves the opera, but she has her opinions and she stands by them. She begins to become immersed in a different life when she meets a young Hungarian, Rudi, who opens her world to new possibilities. This quickly brings up the concept of immigration in Australia at that time and how ‘refos’ (as affectionately named in the film) were not accepted into society due to their cultural differences.

Young actress Angourie Rice plays another central character, Lisa (aka Leslie), whose optimism and young naivety propels the plot in curious directions. An extremely intelligent girl, the audience finds themselves rooting for her as her hardworking father struggles to understand her desires for university and a different life. She soon becomes good friends with Magda, another immigrant, who shows her fashion, elegance and European culture like she’d never experienced before. This changes her character and Lisa begins to learn more and more about the world, driving a small wedge between her and her mother. There are several sweet moments between the mother and daughter as Lisa begins her own coming of age story and settle into becoming a woman.

Magda’s character is wonderful as she frequently compares the slang and lifestyle of Australians to that of Europeans in highly amusing ways. While she makes an intimidating entrance, the audience quickly falls in love with Magda due to her excellent sense of humour and impeccable style.

As the film progresses, there are some moments where I cringed because the Australia accent was grating or the slang was over the top. There were several times where Fay would say things like “Fair dinkum?” And it just felt laboured and necessary. However, this can be somewhat forgiven due to the time period this was set as the language was occasionally like this at the time. Lisa’s father, Mr Miles (you might recognise him as Kenny from the mockumentary Kenny), also constantly spoke the “true blue” Australian slang throughout the entire film which occasionally became too much.

The connection between the cultures was my favourite part as the film portrayed Christmas in Australia with beaches, cricket and bonbons. Seeing this on screen as an Australian was heartwarming, as our summer Christmas is rarely depicted on the big screen. As our Ladies in Black slowly began to mingle with Magda and the other Europeans, it showed a lovely portrayal of Australian acceptance of refugees and the stories they can share.

While I had zero expectations for this film, I did find myself charmed by Ladies in Black. It was a simple film that followed a few women in their day-to-day lives in 1959 Australia. There was no major antagonist or battle to be won, but it was still a lovely film that displayed Australian life.

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