Ua satire on gender dynamics that stands up a rather worn out idea, already seen in millions of films: the reversal of roles. Here is the summary Ladies First – new film in which Sacha Baron Cohen – male chauvinist – awakens in a world where women hold the power. A script already seen and that adds nothing to the contemporary debate on gender inequalities.
Ladies First: the plot of the Netflix film in streaming
Damien Sachs (Sacha Baron Cohen) is an arrogant and sexist adman on the verge of becoming CEO of the Atlas agency following the retirement of his mentor Fred (Charles Dance). Damien However, he clashes with the shareholders who want a female face at the top of the company and, to save his candidacy, he instructs his assistant Ruby (Weruche Opia) to hire a woman as CEO.
Ruby chooses Alex (Rosamund Pike)competent and prepared, but Damien quickly makes it clear to her that she will have no real power decision-making. At that point the woman resigns immediately and he, chasing her to humiliate her once again, ends up against a pole and loses consciousness.
Upon awakening, she discovers an upside-down reality: women are now in positions of power while men experience discrimination and marginalization. In the meantime, in the company Alex is the CEO, the receptionist Felicity (Fiona Shaw) has “magically” become the outgoing president and the janitor Glenda (Kathryn Hunter) she’s even the owner of Atlas.
Displaced and humiliated, Damien tries to adapt to a system that replicates on men the same oppressive dynamics that it has always fueled. Determined to regain prestige and power, he competes with Alex for leadership of the agency but the comparison with a world dominated by women forces him to see your old behavior in a different light. Between rivalry and attraction for Alex and feelings of guilt, Damien will understand how difficult it is to give up the privileges he has always considered “natural”.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike in “Ladies First”. (Netflix).
A dated battle of the sexes, the review
Remake of the film I’m not an easy man directed by Éléonore Pourriat, Ladies First try to reflect on gender relations through satire. Despite the premises often ends up repeating reflections already seen in many past titles, from the rom-com What Women Want with Mel Gibson in the thriller Revelations with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore.
Ladies First it works above all as a “revenge fantasy” female even if many of his ideas appear dated and not very incisive, especially compared to complexity of the contemporary debate on the issue. Predictable and forced even some comical details, and even the soundtrack which insists on symbolic solutions that are all too explicit.
The most interesting component remains perhaps the metatextual one: the caricatural machismo embodied by Cohen (in films like the saga of Borat) is progressively dismantled by the cold and calculating character played by Rosamund Pikea “classic” of the actress’s repertoire. More than an innovative reflection on the present, Ladies First It therefore seems like a film that looks to the past, both culturally and cinematically.
The cast of Ladies First: Rosamund Pike and Sacha Baron Cohen
Usually at home in comedy, in Ladies First Sacha Baron Cohen is less incisive than usual. Maybe having sacrificed that vulgar and provocative comedy which made him famous in favor of a more conventional satire.
Better Rosamund Pike, the most convincing element of the film. His Alex dominates the scene with a cold, controlled and authoritarian attitude that deliberately recalls Amy Dunne Of Lying love – Gone Girl. The actress also manages to give depth and credibility even to the moments in which the script seems more predictable or caption.
The chemistry between the two is also fluctuating: it works in moments of conflict and rivalry, while it is less convincing in the romantic component. Cohen and Pike also they seem to act in two different films: he focuses on caricatural comedyWhile she constructs a more subtle and sophisticated satire.
