It's hard to say we "enjoyed" this wrenching story of 1912 English women fighting for the right to vote, but it's powerful, beautifully shot, and we highly recommend it. Carey Mulligan (last blogged in Far from the Madding Crowd) continues to impress us with her talent as our main heroine Maud Watts, accidentally politicized. Her main adversary is Brendan Gleeson (most recently in Calvary) as the scary Inspector condoning beating and jailing of the protestors (yes, there is violence). Supporting the cause are, among others, Anne-Marie Duff (last in Before I Go to Sleep), Helena Bonham Carter (fairy godmother in Cinderella), the lovely Romola Garai (I watched her in the mini-series The Hour), and, for five minutes, Meryl Streep (most recently in Ricki and the Flash). Streep's character, Emmeline Pankhurst, however, was a real feminist icon who was the leader of British women's suffrage.
This is director Sarah Gavron's second feature, but screenwriter Abi Morgan (last in these pages for The Invisible Woman) is making quite a name for herself. The lovely photography (some bleak, and, oh, that magnificent park!) is courtesy of Eduard Grau, who shot A Single Man, though I didn't say so (I should have, as I went into some detail about the exquisite look of that picture).
Warning for those who are prone to Motion Picture Motion Sickness (MPMS), as I am: there are some sequences that will make us queasy, especially toward the end. Jack and I happened to choose to sit in the last row, but I still had to look away from time to time. This is going on the alphabetical list. We sufferers need to know what to expect.
The prolific Alexandre Desplat (Oscar-nominated for The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel last year and won for the latter) brings another great soundtrack to the screen. It can be streamed from this link (with a few fits and starts tonight at least).
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 72 and audiences at 76 are wrong. See this. And stay until the end for a short history lesson.
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