Film - Our Ladies

This film chronicles the adventures of a Fort William girl’s school choir going to Edinburgh to take part in a competition. What I thought would be a rousing, heartwarming film about coming of age and friendship tuned out to be just about an obsession to be liked by boys by putting out. I’ve either got the trailer wrong or the film wrong.

I couldn’t empathise with any of the characters, other than perhaps the teacher/nun. I  (eventually) understood why one of them so desperately wanted to be deflowered but the other four just seemed to have the lowest self-esteem. This was the mid-90s, pretty much in the year of girl-power so it’s at odds with the new wave of young feminism that has been part of our culture since. Wannabee, it ain’t.

I thought that having to include the word ‘shag’ in every sentence would be phased out by the end of the film but no. It went all the way to the end. Billed as a comedy drama, the laughs were limited. As was the drama, come to think of it. If it was just about ‘drinking and partying’ I could understand the girls wanting to spread their wings a bit - I guess this was around the time of ladette culture. I remember those days as women talking much about their right to party and being in control of their lives. I bunked of every third RE lesson but I went to a liberal comprehensive. I can’t imagine what it is like to go to a religious school.  Yes, these are naïve youngsters, but their problems were deeper routed which bullying and snobbery also making a guest appearance.

Our ladies, is a bad advert for Scotland, a country I love - unless you are a pubescent boy. I doubt it will affect Fort William’s tourism. Other than a smile during the fireworks scene, I came out of the cinema feeling utterly sad. 

NB I’ve since learnt this was based on a book, written by a man and the film was scripted and pretty much made by men too. Odd.

2/10