Lady J

Movie review by Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media
Lady J Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 16+

French drama about infidelity and passion has nudity.

NR 2019 110 minutes
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Parents say

age 18+

Based on 3 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the 2019 Lady J is in French with English subtitles and provides a study in passion, infidelity, and the damage both can do to individuals and society. As in Dangerous Liaisons, the role sex plays in life is dealt with frankly, although no sex is shown. Two characters have been driven by circumstances to prostitution. A man and woman candidly discuss his reputation as an inconstant lover who flits from one woman to the next, tiring of each once he "conquers" them. When he repeats his pattern with the wrong woman, she sets out to wreak revenge. Adults drink alcohol. A woman's breasts are seen.

Community Reviews

Paulyn
Paulyn Adult
November 6, 2020
age 18+

Disappointing

It’s every dirty-old-man’s fantasy about an old man successfully seducing scores of young, beautiful women. There is a scene where a young woman who is nude from the waist up walks around the room giving you plenty of time to check her out. It adds nothing to the story and is just an excuse to stare at her breasts. There are no consequences for his lascivious behavior and in the end he marries a beautiful kid whom he will ogle and abuse.
Willtolive
Willtolive Adult
July 23, 2020
age 18+

A society is as a man does.

I'm deeply saddened as a man to see yet another movie where the man who scars and leaves multiple kind women who never utter a word against him, get a winners ending where else the woman who tried to teach him a lesson is shown as lonely and sad regardless of what her final dialogues say about her being at peace. If you're a fan of patriarchy this movie is for you but if you have even an ounce of humanity, you'll be disturbed by the ending.
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

LADY J of the title is an unfortunate born of two unmarried aristocrats who educate her to be a lady but abandon her. When another aristocrat is attracted to her beauty and grace, he fakes a marriage and leaves her with a daughter. Shunned from society, the two turn to prostitution and become an amusing anecdote among Paris society. The story returns to the wealthy and widowed Marquise de Pommeraye (Cecile de France) after she herself is betrayed by a well-known seducer, Marquis des Arcis (Edouard Baer). The Marquis is charming and bright, with a penchant for beautiful women who resist him. He pours that charm on the uninterested Pommeraye for six months before she succumbs. Predictably, he tires of her, but she's devastated by the loss. Pretending it is she who has fallen out of love in order to elicit his honest admission that his passion has faded, she summons Lady J (Natalia Dontcheva) and her ethereal daughter (Alice Isaaz) and conceives a plot that will free them from their seedy lives by hooking the unsuspecting Marquis on the beautiful daughter and opening him to ridicule in society.

Is It Any Good?

The story cleverly turns on its head the idea that a libertine who takes advantage of women should, in the name of wronged women everywhere, fairly be dealt a well-deserved comeuppance. Pommeraye's ingenious plot plays out in masterly fashion, with Lady J and her daughter performing perfectly, but the perfection starts to cause unease in those rooting for her. She becomes a bit too mean for comfort. Perhaps scoundrels like the Marquis deserve punishment, but viewers may like Pommeraye less as she relishes the pain and destruction she causes, and that will provide interested teens with plenty to discuss.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why the Marquise needs so badly to bring pain to someone she once loved. Do you think this demonstrates how closely love and hatred can be linked?

  • Does the scenario the Marquise plans in Lady J seem believable? Why or why not?

  • Although the Marquise first seems to promise a better life to her co-conspirators, she soon seems willing to hurt them as much as she hurts the Marquis. Does this change your opinion of her? Why or why not?

Movie Details

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