Suffragette (2015)

SUFFRAGETTE is an acceptable filmed version of the Suffragette movement in Britain in the early 20th century, making sure to cover all of the main ground: the oppression faced by working women, the difficulty of working conditions, sexism, family relationships, the violence and rebellion of the Suffrage movement, the attitude of the authorities. It ends in the most famous event associated with the movement and as a whole is very predictable, but educational at the same time. I would have preferred this if the main character hadn't been heavily fictionalised and if we had a little more depth and layering, because as things stand this is very black-and-white in approach. Meryl Streep's cameo is too much of a distraction too. Still, the likes of Mulligan, Bonham Carter and Garai work hard to invest you in their roles, and it moves with a briskness and efficiency to keep it engaging.

Like the film "Jackie" I reviewed recently, "Suffragette" from British Director Sarah Gavron seeks to achieve a necessary "roughing-up" of history made a bit too smooth (and hence unrealistic) by the passing of the decades. Without it, we are likely to add inappropriate refinement to pictures of actually-rather-demure-looking ladies in old sepia photos, with their smart-if-stiff-looking Edwardian-type clothes and such old-fashioned, even twee, names as "Emmeline Pankhurst" and "Emily Davison".This film will have none of that. Here are women - of various ages and (very importantly) various classes - boiling over with fury at the injustice they suffer, fed up with promises of enfranchisement that get nowhere. They struggle on at work for low (and lower-than-male) pay, give birth at regular intervals without much choice in the matter, face routine sexist abuse, are treated like property, pass most rights to their husbands as they marry, and just cannot stand it any longer.And this in a basically-democratic Britain that has long prided itself for the way it stands up for rights. Indeed, by 1912, male workers have won plenty of rights for themselves already, but now see it as convenient for the process to stop at that point.So here is a film whose main positive (if sadly mostly invented) characters are female; and since they are acted by the likes of Carey Mulligan (our increasingly radicalised heroine Maud Watts), Helena Bonham-Carter (as composite character Edith Ellyn) and a cameo Meryl Streep (as the real-life Mrs Pankhurst herself) - we have nothing to worry about in the sense of quality.Most male characters are not shown as clearly, and where they are, the light is often negative. (That appalling womaniser) Lloyd George in his pre-PM days is well done by Adrian Schiller, but he is as ineffectual (at this stage) as he is basically well-meaning. Maud's husband Sonny, played nicely enough by Ben Whishaw, is a basically-decent everyman entirely unable to distance himself enough to see that the woman he does indeed love deserves more than that. From the ruling class, the (sadly never-existing) Benedict Haughton MP (played by Samuel West) is willing to use fair means and foul to keep the lid on a growing rebellion that his own wife is a part of. And he is aided in this by Special Branch's Inspector Arthur Steed - the "man of the match" for this viewer at least, played with great deftness of touch by the ever-talented Brendan Gleeson. Steed is now deploying the first hi-tech as he seeks to spy on - and of course undermine - the plotting Suffragettes.And here we come upon a key point of the film, given that the portrayal of the activists here makes few bones about the fact that they are terrorists, actively encouraged into acts of terror by their leader. As it happens, nobody actually dies in the film - except for Suffragette Emily Davison, who famously ran in front of King George V's horse at The Derby (having been imprisoned on several occasions and apparently force-fed 49 times). Certainly injuries are sustained as the police wade into crowds of protesting Suffragettes. But the latter's activities could indeed have taken lives, and were certainly highly disruptive.The makers would like us to accept that the women were left with no other choice, but, though that case indeed has its historical merits, this same excuse has been used by (worse) terrorists a little too often for us to feel fully comfortable with the concept.In any case, the portrayal of London in 1912 is remarkable, and there is a great deal of squalor still present there - for men and women both, it might be added. Ground-breakingly, the film is also the first in history to be permitted to use true House of Commons settings - a testament to its great worth, and to the key historical events it portrays.Except that this is not purely historical. As the DVD's Extra Materials make clear, our film here was made with more than one eye on the fact that wage-differentials exist even in today's Europe, while basic rights are still denied to women in a host of countries right here and now in 2017.For this and the clear historical imperatives, "Suffragette" is simply a well-acted and skilfully-presented must-see.

Just another formula movie skip it.Meryl Streep is just phoning it in for another paycheck.People like Streep should just retire and change jobs.I think her political views are hurting her acting.She should just shut up and act.

What a good movie this is, I wasn't sure what to expect but I was gripped from the outset. The set direction is superb and you really feel that you have been transported back to this awful time in history where women had very little if any rights. The story is one we all think we know but this movie reveals some surprises. Checking the history of this time it appears that this movie gets it right within the confines of cramming it all into under two hours.I though Carey Mulligan was outstanding as the fictional Maud Watts, who was clearly based on an amalgam of real characters, she captured her character brilliantly and showed a wide range of emotion as she became, at first reluctantly, drawn into the Suffragette movement.Meryl Streep has a very small role, almost a cameo, but she is as always 100% convincing as Emmeline Pankhurst. Helena Bonham Carter is also outstanding in her role and I found every character believable.Is is disturbing to think that the events in this movie took place not too long ago and it is sad to see that men used their positions to prey on women and young girls and treat them as little more than property or sex objects. The actions of the Police were particularly disturbing.This is not the type of movie I would normally watch but I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in History.