The Making Of A Lady

The Making Of A Lady is a 2012 British period drama with Gothic elements. It's a good quality movie which by some reason drives "progressives" crazy (apparently it's sexist, racist, classist  and fails to show the upper classes as total degenerates, though some of them are) and thus is a good source of reactionary entertainment. It's also a short movie (1.5 hour) so could be easily watched in one evening.

The story goes as follows: a young woman called Emily works as a secretary/companion of a wealthy lady who has a nephew, Lord James Walderhurst, who just came back from his regiment in India. Lord James is a childless widower and his aunt insists that he fulfills his duty to his family by marrying and producing a heir. She keeps inviting young girls to meet him, and he dislikes them all. During a dinner, Emily helps him to avoid one of them and as a result, gets fired by the aunt.

Lord James feeling duly remorseful suddenly comes up with an idea: why doesn't Emily marry him? She will gain financial security and he will get an understanding wife and his aunt will finally stop harassing him. The two travel together to his estate and get married, but just as the things are starting to heat up a bit between them, he is called back to India. A couple of weeks after he leaves, his unscrupulous cousin Alec moves in with his Indian wife and her old nanny...

There are several things I like about the movie. First, it demonstrates a refreshingly traditional attitude towards marriage. Lord James and Emily don't initially marry out of love, but they find it in the end. Duty is mentioned more than once (Lord James has a duty to his family to produce a heir, and it's duty that calls him back to India though he was planning to retire).

Second, the funny thing is that the movie which is so traditional, is an adaptation of a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett which was actually quite feminist and frankly, rather boring. The film producers made several changes which greatly improved the story, imo. First, the made the main characters younger. In the book, Lord James is in his fifties (hardly a romantic character) and Emily is something like 36. In the movie, Lord James is in his late thirties/early forties and she is in her late twenties.

The book, which I will admit, I read quite some time ago, is all about portraying women as poor innocent victims (they have to bear children, for Pete's sake!), while all men without exceptions, are or downright abusive, like Alec, or simply insensitive dastards, like Lord James and the colonel of Alec's regiment. The movie, on the other hand, is free from man-bashing and is also more dynamic than the novel and quite accurately shows that there are actually some women who, like Alec's wife, dig violent men.

In short, it's quite entertaining. It has some (very brief) nudity, but no graphic bedroom scenes, though they are hinted at. The Making Of A Lady is a chick flick, but one that men could probably enjoy, too. And by watching it, you will figuratively give a bad day  to the "progressive" establishment.