It's no easy feat to make a great mockumentary. So often, they’re hit-or-miss formats – so heavily reliant on improvisation and relatability, often struggling to balance being engrossing without feeling forced. While once a fresh and original concept, the format has increasingly become rather exhausting over the years.
However, what Samuel Abrahams has crafted with his debut feature, Lady, is anything but exhausting. Somehow filmed in over just two weeks in the middle of winter at Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk, Lady is an organic, wacky, riotous comedic treasure that, underneath all of its sensationally self-deprecatingly British humour, has a surprisingly huge heart.
Sian Clifford is phenomenal as Isabella – aristocracy’s answer to the Kardashians, she claims. She’s an impossibly wealthy, highly eccentric and superbly self-centred British aristocrat, who, longing for the spotlight and terrified of remaining unknown, has hired a camera crew to document her newfound artistic evolution (though she’s not entirely sure what her talent is yet) – a film that will eventually culminate in her winning the "Stately Stars" talent competition, an annual contest hosted at her manor. It’s a competition for children, but of course, Isabella pays no mind to that.
Directing the documentary is the young, BAFTA-nominated – and occasionally incompetent – Sam (Laurie Kynaston), who arrives at Ravenhyde Hall under the belief that Netflix have commissioned the project. Anxious to impress and in complete disbelief that he’s even been hired in the first place, Sam quickly realises that things aren’t about to get any easier once he walks through Isabella’s impressively large front door.
It quickly becomes apparent that Netflix aren’t actually on board with the film. In fact, they’ve got absolutely no idea who Isabella is. But soon, one surreal, magical moment gets Sam thinking that they might still have some cinematic gold on their hands…
It’s this departure into absurdity that makes Lady so distinctive. Without wandering too far into spoilers, it’s at this point that the film’s tone shifts rapidly into something far more magical, and delightfully more deranged, than your mainstream mockumentary. Abrahams has compared the twist to the likes of Groundhog Day and Being John Malkovich, with a surreal premise underlining a film that has quite a meaningful outcome. And while Lady very much stands on its own, the comparisons are certainly palpable.
Beautiful in its cinematography, with Somerleyton Hall providing the perfect, picturesque background for Isabella’s whimsical lifestyle, the film’s cast is pocket-sized, with Clifford, Kynaston and The Sarah Jane Adventures alum Juliet Cowan as Isabella’s amiable housekeeper Becky carrying much of the film between them. And while the performances are solid all around, Clifford is a real tour de force in a film that requires her to be so present, working within such a tight, fast-paced script.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThough having previously shown off her comedic chops in her BAFTA-winning role in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's acclaimed Fleabag, here, Clifford proves that she also has real talent as a leading lady. She is convincing, and, at times, wholly heartbreaking as a woman who is so desperately afraid of being invisible. Scenes where Isabella leans into her sympathetic side are truly moving, and despite earlier moments of unlikability thanks to her heightened sense of entitlement, she becomes almost impossible not to root for.
Of course, the nature of the fake doc format has its own hurdles, and there are moments in the film that might find you questioning ‘Why on Earth are they still filming this?’. Equally, there are occasions that the film gets carried away with its own incongruity. Yet, what emerges from Lady is in equal parts a peculiar and unexpectedly tender tale of humanity and grief that, with some great performances, gorgeous visuals and sharp direction, really does work.
Lady will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 14 August.
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