Lady review: Sian Clifford is hilarious in offbeat comedy
I adored Sian Clifford in Fleabag and we haven’t seen her on-screen enough since, especially in a substantial role. Thankfully, she’s finally given the chance to take centre stage with the wacky comedy Lady.
The mockumentary, written and directed by Samuel Abrahams, tells the story of the lonely and delusional aristocrat Lady Isabella Ravenhyde. She invites a struggling documentary filmmaker Sam (Laurie Kynaston) and his crew to Ravenhyde Hall in Norfolk to make a film about her and her quest to win the local talent show, Stately Stars. Realising the Netflix commission is a lie, Sam threatens to pull out of the project… Until Isabella starts becoming invisible!
Lady is a clever satire of our culture right now, where almost everyone has main character energy and is trying to be seen on a larger scale. Lady Isabella takes this to extremes and pretends to be someone she’s not. It’s hilarious but also quite tragic seeing her staged, inauthentic moments at the start of filming, in lots of fabulous costumes in different areas of her gorgeous yet strangely empty mansion. But the mask soon drops and you realise how lonely, isolated and depressed she really is.
Lady’s style of comedy is more offbeat, WTF, absurd and cringe-inducing than laugh-out-loud funny. Its sense of humour is very specific and you are either on board or not. Isabella is very amusing – she’s a chaotic narcissist trying to curate a particular image, saying things like, “Everyone’s saying I’m the aristocracy’s answer to the Kardashians.” She also appears in these wonderfully random and bizarre interstitials in bonkers setups and looks. In general, the look of the film is excellent, from the location to the production and costume design.
I went into this completely cold and I had no idea what was going to happen. The fantastical turn is unexpected but necessary; the film needed another layer to keep it going. That said, the novelty still wore off for me midway through, even though I liked the evolution of the dynamic between Isabella and Sam.
This is Clifford’s moment. Lady is a tricky tonal balance and she nails the assignment. She is so good at playing both sides of Isabella – the hilariously egotistical ‘toff’ on the surface and the sad, tragic person underneath. One minute you’re laughing at her and then the next you’re feeling sorry for her. Kynaston is the perfect foil as the awkward director out of his depth, and their fourth-wall-breaking interactions with the camera are ace.
Lady has a unique, bonkers concept and Clifford is the perfect choice for the title role. However, the second half runs out of steam and is nowhere near as strong as the first.
In cinemas from Friday 14th August