Suffragette 2015

Just skimming down the cast list and then seeing the writer you know are going to be entertained in an intelligent and adult way. So Suffragette proved.

Putting to one side the seemingly never ending arguments about the historical accuracy of the way the suffragette movement was portrayed, the light the few male characters were shown in [quite frankly who cares?] and you have an uplifting and entertaining film that doesn’t stray too much into over the top histrionics and heart string tugging. Being a film made for the modern cinema that basically is trying to make its money back, you are going to get some of this mixed into the ingredients but overall I felt I was being treated like an adult.

Carey Mulligan, trying desperately to look worn by years of working, apparently wearing little to no make-up and not washing her hair for days, puts in a believable performance, showing a woman who at first just wants to earn money at her ‘good job’ and being a good mother and wife to her husband and son. Inexorable she is drawn into the radical side of the suffragettes and the film does a good job of showing how a few actions, an inspirational speech here and one small let-down, can turn the mildest of us into an angry reactionary. It was believable as it was heart-rending and troubling on several levels.

Ranged against her is the incomparable Brendan Gleeson, honestly has this man ever given a bad performance? Given a role that could be seen as the traditional ‘black hat’, a man who is the purely the instrument of the government, Gleeson somehow through his acting gives you the feeling that although he will pursue the women and prosecute them to the full extent of the law somewhere deep inside he has great sympathy for them but yet he never says as much. Gleeson is great.

The rest of the ensemble cast is equally impressive. The more I see of Helena Bonham Carter away from Johnny Depp and Tim Burton the more I like the performances she gives. Anne-Marie Duff shows that perhaps she should be considered for bigger roles in films and I’m convinced that someone on the crew must have poked child actor Adam Michael Dodd with a pointy stick as he looked so upset and sad in a few scenes, well perhaps not.

Once again, aside from the social and political history that was correctly or incorrectly displayed the only minus points I could take from the film was the ‘ya-boo’ baddy Norman Taylor played by Geoff Bell. Maybe a little more Alan Sugar and little less Sir Jasper Naughty-Bonce would tone down his character but I do get the point that was got across. The other is it would have been nice to have seen something happen to Maud as the film’s ending scenes seem to suggest she just disappeared into the mists of time, which from the end credits is probably exactly what the makers wanted but certainly neither of these quibbles, and they are just small quibbles, took anything away from the story and film.

My personal take on the film is if it did incorrectly show a movement for feminism and its motives and if it missed important points during that time in history then it is but one film written, directed and primarily acted in by women that has added to the humungous pile of historically inaccurate films made by, staring and for men. Of course whilst also not forgetting the thousands of women who played major parts historic moments and events that have been diminished to a bit part or airbrushed out altogether by mainly male film-makers. So as the male of the species I can shrug this off and say fair enough it’s been due...