Based on a book, "The Sopranos", by Alan Warner, Our Ladies is a terrific, feel-good, jaunt around Edinburgh in the 1990s, allowing viewers to have fun watching the exploits of a bawdy group of convent schoolgirls. It calls to mind a number of other, equally fine films, from The Trouble With Angels to Heaven Help Us, and more recent Scottish fare like The Angel's Share.
Orla (Tallulah Greive) is held up as an example of the miraculous power of god, thanks to a trip to Lourdes that seems to have helped her recover from leukaemia, but she really wants to test her luck and get one more "miracle" while on a day trip with her school choir to Edinburgh. She is supported in this plan by a group of friends. There's Finnoula (Abigail Lawrie), Chell (Rona Morison), Kylah (Marli Siu), Manda (Sally Messham), and Kay (Eve Austin). Not that these girls are all friends with one another - things change throughout the movie, and Kay starts off very much as the goody-two-shoes outsider of the group - but they're all happy to keep Orla company, and to maybe make their own unforgettable experience while running free through Auld Reekie.
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones, a bit of a veteran with an equal amount of good and bad throughout his filmography, Our Ladies is, in many ways, very standard stuff, which doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's almost refreshing that the script, co-written by Caton-Jones and Alan Sharp, weaves between predictable, but satisfying, moments and a humour and attitude that keeps us firmly in the 1990s. Updating the source material could have been entirely possible, but it somehow feels all the better for being set when it is, with the girls equally oblivious to how much the entire world will change around them as they are to how much their own lives can change once their schooldays are finished.
Bittersweet in a few different ways, there's a perfect balance of reality and optimism on display here. These characters have seen so many people around them become stuck, and this has given the impression that it's hard to really break away from their home town and make a better life. Thankfully, it's also strengthened their resolve to do just that, and the trip to Edinburgh is both a time to try as many new experiences as possible and a time to dip their toes into a lake of freedom that they hope to swim in for a long time as they move further into full adulthood.
Things are helped massively by the talented cast. Greive is the heart of the film, and she's a lovely, sweet, presence. In contrast, both Siu and Messham play characters who bristle whenever things change at a pace they're not necessarily ready for, one wanting to lead the way and one just not wanting to be left behind. Morison and Austin are very good, handling their different issues in different ways, and Lawrie plays her part well, the character with arguably the most potential to realise her ambitions, without ever coming across as too patronising or smug. You also get a wonderful small role for Kate Dickie (as Sister Condron), someone I always enjoy watching onscreen.
There are mis-steps, with the plot sometimes feeling a bit overcrowded, one or two moments a bit too neat, and some scenes showing sides of characters that make them much more difficult to like, but the good far outweighs the bad here. And the good includes a beautiful ending that breaks away from the style of everything preceding it, giving you a goosebump-raising rendition of a wonderful song and a cameo appearance that will be sure to put a big grin on your face.
8/10
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