Review: Suffragette

On June 4, 1913, Emily Wilding Davison suffered fatal injuries after stepping out in front of King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby. A militant activist, her gesture - whether or not made in self-sacrifice - galvanised the women's suffrage movement and brought international awareness to the cause. Suffragette is not her story, nor is it the story of Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), the pioneering activist who appears for all of three minutes to incite her foot soldiers to "Never surrender, never give up the fight!" before disappearing back into the shadows.

No, Suffragette is about neither of these women, both whom are kept mostly to the periphery. Rather this film, written by Abi Morgan and directed by Sarah Gavron, centers on 24-year-old Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), who is a composite of several real-life women. Maud begins as a bystander and, by film's end, she is a wholly committed pillar of the cause. She is a wife and mother who labours at the laundry where her late mother worked before her. Maud has been working at the laundry part-time beginning at the age of seven and full-time since she was 12. The conditions are brutal and dangerous - the women could get scalded, their fingers crushed, or poisoned by the fumes - and she, along with many others, are subject to the undisguised sexual advances of their boss, Mr. Taylor (Geoff Bell). They get paid less than the men though they work a third more the hours, and the money they earn is controlled by their husbands.

They have been peacefully campaigning for decades for equality and the right to vote, but they have been continuously ignored. They have no choice now but to be more militant, Pankhurst encourages. "Deeds and sacrifices must be the order of the day," she declares. As Maud herself later tells Inspector Arthur Steed (Brendan Gleeson), "War is the only language men listen to." By the time she utters those words, Maud has been imprisoned several times for her involvement in the subversive group's activities, and each incarceration serves to strengthen her resolve and calcify her indignation. She's derided for being one of the "filthy Panks," as the members of the Women's Social and Political Union are called. She is even shamed by her husband (Ben Whishaw), who himself is jeered at by his co-workers for not keeping his wife in line. The injustices Maud undergoes are many, which may be too much a burden to place on a single character (not to mention a manipulation of audience's emotions), but Mulligan is exemplary, masterfully charting Maud's arc from someone unwilling to rock the boat to one determined to fight for the right to be a first-class citizen.

There are excellent contributions from the behind-the-scenes team. Production designer Alice Normington and costume Jane Petrie meticulously recreate the period's setting and wardrobe. Gavron maintains a tight rein on the proceedings, striking just the right balance between melodrama and realism. The demonstration scenes are particularly effective as the women find themselves beaten, battered and punched in the bellies for merely voicing their outrage. It's shocking to watch and even more shocking to reflect upon how recently these events occurred - a mere 103 years ago - and how gender imbalance is still an ongoing issue in all sections of society, whether it be in moviemaking, politics, or everyday workplaces. It should rightfully chill and enrage that, in 2015, voting rights are but a promise for Saudi Arabian women.

For all its righteous fury, Suffragette feels terribly flat. To be clear, the film is searing and possesses an urgency that ensnares one's attention. Yet the more events escalate, the less the characters feel like actual women. They become contrivances to the cause, mere symbols instead of flesh and bone human beings.

An interesting sidenote: the always excellent Helena Bonham Carter, who portrays the fictional Edith Ellyn, is the great-granddaughter of H.H. Asquith, who was Prime Minister during the peak years of the suffrage movement. He opposed the cause.

Suffragette

Directed by: Sarah Gavron

Written by: Abi Morgan

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, Meryl Streep, Romola Garai, Samuel West, Natalie Press, Adrian Schiller, Geoff Bell, Finbar Lynch