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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Suffragette

SUFFRAGETTE (Sarah Gavron). 106 minutes. Opens Friday (October 30). See listings. Rating: NN


If I found this story of an early 20th-century UK woman joining the suffrage movement a snore, Suffragette will not do well – this pic about what was at stake was made for women’s history buffs like me.

Sarah Gavron’s film – about laundress Maud (Carey Mulligan), who has her consciousness gradually raised by a co-worker (Ann-Marie Duff) and a committed chemist (Helena Bonham Carter), only to be rejected by her husband (Ben Whishaw) – has a drearily didactic tone and just plods along. 

There are many wasted opportunities. Maud’s sexual abuse at the hands of her boss is dealt with so elliptically, it generates zero outrage. 

And the activists are made to look awfully tame. These were incensed radicals – inspired by Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep in a 90-second cameo) – who bombed mailboxes, hurled stones through hundreds of shop windows and, more important, often had to deal with internal conflicts over strategy. There’s not a whiff of that, not a moment when the activists face off with each other. Watch Ava DuVernay’s Selma to see how groundbreaking political action can be brought to life.

Except for a scene when Maud learns she’s losing her son, the movie hasn’t a drop of emotional juice. The last two scenes, which are supposed to turn our crank, are badly botched.

Yes, the actors are excellent, but this ostensibly rousing movie won’t stir much of anything.

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