In 2022 I set a film goal to watch every Meryl Streep movie I hadn't yet seen. Of the 59 films in which she had appeared to date, I started the year with 39 I would need to take in. With my viewing of 2015’s Suffragette, that number is now down to 38! Suffragette was selected randomly from my list, and it turns out to be an ironic choice since Ms. Streep’s on-screen time amounts to just 4 minutes!
I’ve seen many good films that tell the tale of the United States women’s suffrage movement, but this was my first exposure to the movement that took place in Britain. Most of the discriminations remain the same… sexual exploitation in the workplace, lower pay, force-feedings when employing hunger strikes, lack of financial independence, and lack of child custody being among them. The women fight against a legal system that has been set up by men for the benefit of men. The men of the day commented that changing the accepted social norms would result in chaos. Those defending the perpetuation of discrimination typically call on the “social engineering” trope to rally those to their cause.
The acting is superb, with stand-out performances given by Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne-Marie Duff. The central character Maud (Mulligan) is made up for the film and is meant to represent the “every woman” of the era. The pacing during the first hour is a little sluggish, and the story never seems to be quite sure where it is going. I can’t figure out if it was trying to tell too much or if it was not telling enough in its effort to conclude with these women eventually achieving their goal... obtaining the right to cast their own votes in the political processes that govern them.
The film is not a bad one, it just didn’t achieve the excellence or poignance that I had hoped it would provide when I started watching it.
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