Suffragette – Feminism, The Movie

Directed by Sarah Gavron. Produced by Alison Owen and Faye Ward. Written by Abi Morgan. Release date: October 23, 2015.

If you’ve seen the trailer for Suffragette, you can probably figure out two things. The first is that the movie is about the movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s whose goal was to give women the right to vote. The second is that this is the movie for which Meryl Streep will get her yearly required Oscar nomination. While the former is most certainly true – that is almost all the film is about – the latter may not. Streep, despite featuring rather heavily in the advertising, is only in the film for about five minutes. If she happens to get an Oscar nomination for the role, where she is good but on-screen for an all-too-brief time, it will be a joke.

The movie surrounding her cameo follows Maud (Carey Mulligan), a woman in her mid-20s who works at the local laundry factory. She’s married to Sonny (Ben Whishaw), with whom she has a child, and she works for long hours and for substantially less money than men at the same locale. She also deals with sexual harassment and a husband that controls everything. However, she’s relatively content with her existence, until she becomes unwittingly involved in the suffragette movement of the time. At first she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, then she befriends the wrong people, and then she becomes a full-on feminist crusader, leading the charge against the oppressive government. What’s that Ron Burgundy quote? “Well, that escalated quickly.”

The women she befriends are: Edith (Helena Bonham Carter), Emily (Natalie Press), and Violet (Anne-Marie Duff), among other less important individuals. Of these four, only Emily is a real person, and she’s been included because of a sacrifice she made for the cause that caused at least one individual in the cinema to let out a massive gasp. What’s more shocking are some of the things that Suffragette shows us, as well as how easy it is to relate them to the present day. Despite its events taking place somewhere around a century ago, Suffragette feels incredibly relevant to where we, as a society, currently sit.

Suffragette is showcasing an important event in human history. It’s a shame that the actual story it’s telling – that of an at-first unwilling participant rising to the top of the movement in the course of what feels like just a few weeks – comes across as a touch pedestrian and very slow. Perhaps it’s because the film is so focused on the fight for a woman’s right to vote that it forgot to have interesting characters. They’re defined solely based on their opinion of the core issue and as such come across as one-dimensional beings. Watching them suffer for rights we currently take for granted works for a while, but eventually we find out that’s all the film has to offer. Well, that and wonderful set designs and costuming, as almost all British period pieces have to offer.

As a result, the character arc Maud goes through feels like it happens too fast and isn’t particularly believable. Carey Mulligan is, as usual, wonderful in the role, but the way it’s written and the speed with which it progresses leaves her little room to give her character much depth. We don’t, for instance, learn that she’s had a deep-rooted hatred of an unfair system for some time, and it’s just now boiling to the forefront of her mind. That kind of thing is almost necessary, and it’s missing. It’s even worse for the supporting cast, who get nothing to do if it’s not about their cause.

That’s not even getting into the way the story is structured, which sees an escalation in both the methods the women use to get noticed, as well as the punishments that come with them. Representing the authority is a hired-gun police inspector, Steed (Brendan Gleeson), who makes it clear that his personal opinions mean nothing and that he will simply do his job. We get to see similar things over and over, just with slightly higher stakes each time. It gets repetitive, and without interesting characters to guide us, it starts to feel boring after a while. And a subject as important as this should not ever feel boring.

While it’s a meaningful, poignant, and, sadly, relevant film, Suffragette suffers from a couple of issues that keep it from being anything other than another decent British period drama. It lacks interesting characters and a complex plot, leading to it feeling far too slow and dull, at times, to be great. However, its subject matter is significant enough, even to today’s audiences, that it’s still worth seeing. Carey Mulligan is good in the lead role, the costumes and set design are great, and it will make you think about feminism both now and then, as well as the rights that you take for granted today.

Bottom Line: Suffragette‘s subject matter keeps it watchable, even if the actual story that’s being told isn’t the greatest.

Recommendation: If the suffrage movement is a topic in which you have particular interest, then see Suffragette. Otherwise, it may be better to just read about it online.

[rating=3]

If you want more of Matthew “Marter” Parkinson, you can follow him on the Twitter @Martertweet and check out his weekly movie podcast.