It was the mid 1990s when prolific director Bruce Beresford first read Madeleine St John‘s novel The Women in Black, so almost a quarter of a century later it must be with some relief that his long-dreamt-of adaptation, Ladies in Black, has finally made it to the screen, a sunny portrait of Sydney during the summer of 1959, just as Europeans were flocking to Australian shores in the wake of WWII. Perhaps the interest that followed a stage musical recently was the required prompt; or perhaps Beresford thought now was a particularly good time to remind us how we have embraced migrant communities in the past and how they have made Australia what it is today.
Beresford, who directs and adapted the novel with Sue Milliken, would have been at university in Sydney at the same time this is set. So it is unsurprising that Ladies in Black deals with a lot of its undemanding material with starry-eyed recollection and old-fashioned sentiment, but this is not a criticism. Just as not a hair is out of place for any of the women who work at the department store, Goodes, over the Christmas rush, every shot is lovingly framed, whether it’s the use of technicolour and Bakelite tones, the use of archival footage to set the scene for the Christmas festivities, or the iconic post-war brick veneer in which our young heroine lives, which is straight out of a Howard Arkley painting. Ladies in Black looks fantastic and it’s indicative of the care invested in every part of this film, particularly its lead.
While Ladies in Black is a film of interconnecting stories, it centres on the smart, sensible and curious school leaver Leslie (Angourie Rice), whom we follow into the world of retail as a first-timer being thrown to the wolves. Wanting to go to university after results come out, she knows this is little more than a stopover job on the way to greener pastures – depending on what her parents decide; Mum (Susie Porter) is all for it but Dad (Shane Jacobson) is still unsure whether university for a girl is worth it – but it turns out the retail life is a handy education in itself. The women in black may all be distinguished by their uniforms and strained smiles, but behind the scenes is an adult world to which she has never been privy to.
Particularly daunting at first is the prospect of Magda (Julia Ormond), the eastern European authority on haute couture, threatening to take Leslie under her wing – or Lisa, as she is trying to reinvent herself. Magda is exotic, elegant and even somewhat intimidating, but she is also one of the ‘reffos’ (refugees) that people sneer about, so it is a revelation when Magda reveals a softer side and an entirely different world to the doting but sheltered upbringing Leslie is trying to grow out of.
At the age of seventeen Angourie Rice already has a formidable list of credits, having recently starred opposite Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys, and here she proves her credentials as a lead. Bright and appealing, she also receives some beautiful guidance from Ormond, who steals most of the best lines along with her screen husband played by Vincent Perez. In their pursuits Magda and Leslie often come across as master and apprentice in working to bring some maturity to what seems a fairly petulant Australia. Do they succeed? It may be arguable, given recent political debate, that it still is a petulant country; hence perhaps Beresford’s compulsion to point out that Australia has handled integration in the past and that it hasn’t been through demonisation that we’ve come to accept migrant communities as Australians.
Ladies in Black is raised by its cast, but it cannot always hide a tendency to rely on romance and nostalgia (and one of the most saccharine soundtracks of any film this year) to breeze over the problems it raises standing in an intolerant country’s way. By jumping from plot to plot – Fay’s (Rachael Taylor) dire luck with men, Patty’s (Alison McGirr) ailing marriage, Leslie’s search for independence – it can be a disjointed adventure towards an obligatory neat ending that comes at the expense of underdeveloping its characters, whose conversations seem so time-constrained and non-spontaneous that sometimes you can almost hear the director telling the cast, ‘And start talking … now’. But while there is room for improvement in this light-hearted affair, there is also so much to like about Beresford’s affectionate portrait of a city growing up.
Ladies in Black is in cinemas from 20th September through Sony Pictures.
