Mulligan is a sure Oscar nominee.
Suffragette
Grade: B+
Director: Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane)
Screenplay: Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady)
Cast: Carey Mulligan (Far From the Madding Crowd), Ann-Marie Duff (Magdalene Sisters)
Rating: PG 13
Runtime: 106 min.
by John DeSando
“I would rather be a rebel than a slave.” Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep)
In 1912 England, women, by contemporary standards, were no better than slaves. Ruled by husbands, who had complete decision-making power, even over children, women inevitably would fight to the death for equal rights. Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), a composite suffragette in the film of the same name, combines a sweet motherhood with an escalating militancy. As in the recent Far From the Madding Crowd, Mulligan is a powerful underplayer of powerful women.
Director Sara Gavron recreates gloomy early-20th century East London, with its grey skies, dirty streets, and horses co-existing with the growing automobile. Both the aggressive women and can’t-be-denied autos crowd the streets announcing their inevitable dominance in a culture just awakening to their potency. But the fight is a tough one: Maud’s husband Sonny (Ben Whishaw) proclaims his authority about their son: “The law says he is mine.”
Although we know that by 1925 British women will gain the vote, the film masterfully immerses us in the daily struggle of the suffragettes to make the government aware of the inequality. Representing the letter of the law, Inspector Arthur Steed (Brendan Gleeson) pursues the foot-soldier feminists with a hint of frustration at increasingly barbaric treatment, but he never flinches from his duty: “Don't bother arresting them. Let their husbands deal with them.”
Although the film depicts London as subdued dark, a spirit of can-do lies underneath that depression, vigor best expressed by the fearless leader, Mrs. Pankhurst: “Deeds not words.” Even as we know the feminist victory is inevitable, the filmmakers so well craft the struggle that we pull for the suffragettes as if the outcome were not certain. Such is the genius of period pieces like Suffragette: We live the pain with the protagonists.
That’s rewarding cinema.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
