Review of Made in Dagenham (2010) by Mike M — 01 Apr 2011

Retains an underlying seriousness of purpose - in the way "the Full Monty" did, and "Calendar Girls" really didn't - and you surely have to have a sneaking admiration for any film aimed at a wide audience that manages to smuggle a discussion of the finer points of Marxist doctrine in between its broad character business and reassuringly cosy period soundtrack.

.. At a point in its second half where the film might easily have come to settle into comfortable or predictable rhythms - to give into formula, and thus mediocrity - Ivory suddenly comes up with a run of dramatically rich, well-acted scenes that pitch Pike's overlooked trophy wife, the wounded pride and decency of Daniel Mays as Rita's husband, hell, even an entire room of trades union delegates against Hawkins' flinty likability in the lead role.

"She looks like Jane f**kin' Fonda," bellows the American Ford executive trying to pin down whether our heroine's a member of the Socialist Workers or Workers' Revolutionary Party.

"We don't think she's with anyone," counters Richard Schiff's urbane negotiator Tooley, "She just has a beef." The struggle has been depoliticised in one sense - the labels Rita and Barbara come to bond over, finally, aren't "Socialist" or "Marxist", but "Biba" and "C&A" - but the result plays out no less enjoyably for that: at the very least, you could watch "Dagenham" back-to-back with "Tout va Bien" for a crash course in the vast cosmic differences between British and French cinema.