Review
© Jane Freebury
Rated
PG
I hr 49 mins
Cinemas everywhere
Like
many girls in generations past, Lisa takes a job in retail while she waits for her
school leaving results. It opens her eyes to things that North Sydney Girls
High and life at home in a red-brick suburban bungalow couldn’t begin to.
Angourie
Rice brings sweet authenticity to her role as a shy and serious teenager whose
life changes big-time in the lead-up to Christmas in 1959.
How
so? Magda, the formidable, charming woman running the haute couture at Goode’s
department store knows a good employee when she sees one. As a Slovenian émigré
who runs rings around everyone, British actress Julia Ormond has the wittiest
lines in one of the best written Australian films in years.
The
spirited screenplay is adapted from The Women in Black, the 1993 novel by the
late Madeleine St John.
Magda
worked in Paris pre-war but fled Europe a refugee. With devoted husband,
Hungarian émigré, Stefan (Vincent Perez) in tow, she arrived in Sydney with fashion
credentials and aplomb to die for. With a light and airy touch, she gives Lisa
– who’s already shown signs of independent thought in changing her name from
Lesley - the complete makeover.
Off
with the reading spectacles, down with the hair, in with the belt and the girl
is ready to introduce to Magda's circle of immigrant friends at her lower North
Shore parties.
Fay
(Rachael Taylor), a colleague of Lisa’s, also gets an invite on New Year’s Eve,
because Rudi (Ryan Corr), a lonely young Hungarian, would like to meet an
Australian girl. Taylor is pitch perfect as aslightly sad 30-year-old
who’s been around a while.
The
film’s entire ensemble cast, including Noni Hazlehurst as the stern store
supervisor, give nuanced performance, pitched just so. The
only characters whose backstories don’t work so well are Patty (Alison McGirr),
and her husband Frank (Luke Pegler) whose dysfunction could do with a bit more
explanation.
For
Lisa’s mum (Susie Porter) and dad (Shane Jacobson) adapting to change is a
learning process too - learning to enjoy salami, olives and foreign red wine, along
with letting their daughter go as their world moves on.
Sydney
is on the cusp of change as new immigrants from war-ravaged Europe flood to the
sunny, harbourside city. Melburnian audiences may have to take some of the
jokes about their city circa 1959 on the chin.
The
filmography of director Bruce Beresford is about as long as the contemporary
Australian film industry, and includes popular favourites like The Adventures
of Barry McKenzie, Breaker Morant, Paradise Road and Mao’s Last Dancer.
There
is something crazy brave in these fractious times about the basic decency and
wisdom born of experience in Ladies in Black. It deserves to strike a chord too with
its accomplished and charming take on times past.
4
Stars
Also published at Jane's blog and broadcast on ArtSound FM 92.7