Review of Suffragette (2015) by Abb J — 12 Nov 2016

England, 1912. Women don't have the vote and one woman, Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep), is trying to rectify that. She is the leader of the Suffragette movement and, after trying peaceful means to obtain their goals, their methods turn more extreme. On the fringes of the movement is Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), a factory worker. She tries to stay out of the struggle but is inexorably drawn into it. What she sees and endures is brutal, and ultimately ground-breaking.

The story of a how woman came to get the vote in the UK is a story of courage and conviction and one that deserves telling. The work of Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes was revolutionary, necessary and ultimately successful. The movie shows well what the situation was like for women at the time and how they achieved their ends.

However, it is incredibly heavy-handed in its approach. Every male in the movie is portrayed one-dimensionally, as an ogre and oppressor and unsympathetic to women and their cause. There is not a single likeable, or even non-dislikeable, male in the movie. A bit difficult to like the movie too much when it is so manipulative and unbalanced.

Quite dull in spells, too. Pretty much conventional, paint-by-numbers storytelling.