‘Suffragette’: an ardent, necessary study
Strange as it may seem now, it took a Constitutional amendment – the 19th Amendment, to be specific – for women in the United States to earn the right to vote. Even stranger, that amendment – which was ratified in 1920 – predated by eight years similar legislation in Great Britain.
That latter struggle is the central point of “Suffragette,” a stirring film directed by Sarah Gavron from a script written by Abi Morgan. Gavron focuses on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working-class woman – married and the mother of a young boy – who chances into the suffragist movement but who, soon enough, embraces it heart and soul.
Combining fact and fiction, Morgan’s script includes – albeit briefly – some real-life historical characters: Meryl Streep as suffragist leader Emmeline Pankhurst, Adrian Schiller as future Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Natalie Press as the ill-fated Emily Davison. Most everyone else is fictional, though the issues – clearly enough – are not.
And while “Suffragette” overall carries the too-ardent feel of a pure message picture, it is capably directed, Mulligan as always pulls off a performance worth watching and the issues involving sexism still make everyday headlines all over the world – but especially here at home.