It would have been nice to space the release of this film a tad further from Trumbo; the last thing you want to do is trivialize suffrage. The risk you run when multiple studios seek well-intentioned films is your average patron saying, “yeah, who’s oppressed this week?” That’s not the direction you want to go.
Voting is something I have taken for granted in my lifetime. The end credits of Suffragette give a laundry list of countries ranked by their “finally gave women the vote” date. Switzerland: 1971, WTF?! Sure, I’d expect that of the Middle East, but what is your excuse? English women got the vote in 1918, so Suffragette takes place (mostly) in a 1912 London sweatshop.
Married laundry maiden Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) has been working since age seven. In a rare moment of immodesty, Maud reveals a scarred shoulder she must have earned while on the job one day long ago. There is rumble in Maud’s workplace among women for voting rights. It’s vociferous, but lacks an anchor. Maud herself is sympathetic, but hardly invested – who knows the Pandora’s Box of evils that come with sticking your neck out? Nevertheless, when co-worker Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) can’t testify to Parliament (due to spousal abuse), Maud steps up and tells her story. This is Carey Mulligan’s milieu – and I recommend the Mulligan Milieu next time you’re at the Spank & Gabble – have you a period role that calls for a reluctant English heroine? There’s Carey. The magistrate seems most sympathetic to hear this hesistant woman tell her story, yet when the “no” vote is announced (boy that could have made a short film, huh? “Ladies, we voted yes.” “Woohoo!” <end credits> ), the sympathetic ear is replaced by a bobby’s nightstick and a week in the clink.
And Mr. Maud (Ben Whishaw) ain’t pleased when his wife finally returns. (I knew it! I knew you were going to be a romantic heel! I was so right to hate Bright Star!)
Luckily, the women’s movement has some fab veterans in its corner (Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter), while the opponents just had Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson). Suffragette isn’t much for debate or philosophical discussion; the pros are women who want the vote while the antis are angry husbands and the police. Women who don’t want the vote and men on the fence don’t appear in this film.
When explosives are introduced in Act II, Suffragette walks that fine line between acceptable civil disobedience and terrorism. This is an important disctinction; nobody is condoning terrorism and yet director Sarah Gavron is clearly arguing that without a bomb
or two, it was impossible to get anybody’s attention. Even with a bomb or two, it proved most difficult. Personally, I lost Suffragette from time-to-time in the camera work; did Ms. Gavron think she was filming an action movie? Almost every non-establishing shot is done with hand-held camera – this works to highlight the chaos during the bobby beatdown, but it doesn’t work for the rest of this political treatise. This isn’t “24.” Women getting the vote is not going to hinge entirely upon torturing the location of King George V from the Duke of Leicester Square or whatever.
If you’re worried about the Reverse-Bechdel test, Suffragette passes with little problem – so long as we accept that the conversations about women are not of the dating variety, which they, of course, are not. Suffragette isn’t mind-blowing, but there is a faithful nod to the monumental effort it took to bring women the vote. And it’s not an action film. Seriously, what’s that about?
♪He’s clearly anchored in petty mopes
He doesn’t care a lick for women’s votes
Though he adores, I think, Maud you see
Plain to see that his actions are rather stupid
Cast off the his little boy yesterday
Just to be spiteful in his own way
His son’s sons won’t bear his name
He has but himself to blame
You suck, Mister Suffragette♫
Rated PG-13, 106 Minutes
D: Sarah Gavron
W: Abi Morgan
Genre: Reluctantly departing Dickensian England
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Suffragettes
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Mysogynists
♪ Parody inspired by “Sister Suffragette”
