Ladies First puts Sacha Baron Cohen front and centre as Damien, CEO of an advertising firm who is equal parts aging lothario and self-proclaimed male chauvinist. Alongside this unconventional leading man is Rosamund Pike, Charles Dance, and Fiona Shaw making up a solid ensemble who steal from Nancy Meyer’s What Women Want and take her premise in a completely different direction.
Ladies First takes on the idea of gender identity with both hands and runs with it. In a world defined by male desires and one in which women kill themselves to project both a personal and professional persona, Damien finds himself being objectified, disregarded, and overlooked in an alternate reality. This is what will keep audiences watching, even if from every other angle Ladies First feels like copybook stuff.
There is no denying that Rosamund Pike, Fiona Shaw, and other actresses in this film exploit the premise completely, but Ladies First still lacks enough conviction to really follow through. This is not The Last Seduction with Linda Florentino, which gave audiences a hard-boiled female character with no remorse, willing to scrap male influence off her shoe and leave nothing but ash.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
In this cynical take on a romcom it never really feels like a lesson has been learned by Damien, despite his comments to the contrary. The comedy also never feels grounded, and although the laughs sometimes land, Sacha Baron Cohen fails to cut it as an irresistible object of female attention. As a result, Ladies First skates a thin line and never really lands in any camp long enough to hit home. Richard E. Grant might also make a lasting impression in an extended cameo as some sort of social conscience, but even he feels wasted.
This by-the-numbers romcom with a so-called social conscience never attempts to be subtle with its intelligence. Addressing the idea of gender inequality by stating that women are still only capable of competing with their male counterparts by assuming certain masculine traits. If Ladies First does anything, it puts the idea of gender equality in the workplace back a decade or so, by turning a recognised workplace attitude into a punchline.
That is why audiences will never be able to shake the feeling Ladies First lacks sincerity. Above and beyond the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen fails to cut it, there is something distinctly off kilter about this Netflix original film which lacks any kind of feelgood factor. Everyone here has been in better projects, given better performances, and brought gravitas to bear on movies with meaning. The best and worst thing to say about Ladies First is that romcoms like this are rare.
Ladies First is streaming on Netflix now.