Story: An arrogant, male chauvinist man finds that his world has completely flipped, as gender roles are swapped, when he wakes up after a head injury.

Review: Damien (Sacha Baron Cohen), smooth and unabashedly sexist, is next in line to be the CEO of Atlas Agency, propped up by his mentor, Fred (Charles Dance). The only hitch is that the board feels the upper management in the company is too male-heavy and needs gender balancing. As a quick fix, Damien gets his secretary Ruby (Weruche Opia) to choose a woman to be promoted as the agency's new creative director. Ruby picks Alex (Rosamund Pike), who has been working at Atlas long enough and is qualified to merit a promotion, but Damien is only interested in having her on board for the optics.

He undermines Alex's inputs at a creative meeting, and later she overhears him telling a male colleague that he promoted her only because she is a woman and the company needs to come across as gender neutral and not because she deserves it. An outraged Alex quits in a huff. Damien, angry at her decision and completely tone-deaf about his own misogyny, runs after her to make her change her mind but bangs headlong into a pole and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a gender-swapped world.

So from books to billboards to magazines and even names of roads, Damien finds the gender swapped all through - Harry Potter is Harriet Potter, it's Lady of the Rings, Queens Cross, sexualised men on hoardings... you get the drift. Men order a green salad at a restaurant instead of fries and burgers, and go shopping for lacy ball bras!

Disoriented with all these changes in the world around him, Damien goes to work. He finds Felicity (Fiona Shaw), the receptionist, is now the CEO. Alex holds Damien's position, and he has been relegated to a lower role in the power equation. Felicity and Alex are now the ones sizing up men, using them as props and objectifying them. And the janitor, Glenda (Kathryn Hunter), owns the company and can drink up a storm in this new world.

While it is a nice way to set up and pronounce the gender imbalance, the screenplay (Natalie Krinsky, Cinco Paul, Katie Silberman) unfortunately doesn't go beyond. And as a similar swap takes place in Damien's family, with his mother plonked in front of the television and his dad boxed up in the kitchen, the film keeps it at a superficial level all through out, refusing to scratch the surface.

Ladies First is a remake of the 2018 French film, I Am Not an Easy Man (Eleonore Pourriat). While Damien learns important lessons on how his behaviour and mindset towards women need a complete overhaul (obviously), the predictable narrative is bereft of any deep insights or nuances.

The cast, however, is consistent, with Rosamund Pike, Sacha Baron Cohen, Fiona Shaw, Richard E Grant and Charles Dance bringing in credible, solid performances. And the slick production values somewhat compensate for what is lacking in the story.

Director Thea Sharrock, who has earlier helmed gems like Wicked Little Letters (2023) and The Beautiful Game (2024), falters with this one. The handling of the premise is so dated that one won't be faulted with thinking of Nancy Meyers' What Women Want, which came out in 2000 with Mel Gibson as the man who gets the ability to read women's minds after an accident.

In 2026, a lot more is expected from a movie like Ladies First, which takes on the subject of gender roles and power imbalance, while also managing to keep it witty and sharp. But instead, it keeps hammering away with a one-note approach.