First the bad news: Suffragette isn't a Meryl Streep movie, despite what you may have seen in the trailer. She has but a few moments of screen time.
And now the good news: It's a Carey Mulligan movie.
Mulligan, like Streep, is simply a mesmerizing actress, one who can make even pedestrian material sing with the honesty, sophistication and nuance she brings to every role, on screen or stage. In Suffragette, which without her would be a far, far less compelling movie, she doesn't merely entertain us with her skill. She brings to vibrant life an important part of our global history that's easy to forget -- the struggle for a woman's right to vote.
The story of the suffragettes in early 20th-century Britain may bring to mind the joyously daffy Mrs. Banks singing "Sister Suffragette" in Mary Poppins. Suffragette reminds us that the fight involved violence, hunger strikes, bombings, beatings, even death.
Though the movie, directed by Sarah Gavron, includes real-life characters such as Emmeline Pankhurst (Streep) and Emily Wilding Davison (Natalie Press), who both have tiny but crucial roles, its main character is an amalgam. Maud Watts (Mulligan) is a 24-year-old mother who spends her days working in the same fetid laundry -- awful chemicals, brutal hours, sexual abuse from the boss -- where her own mother labored.
Almost accidentally, Maud falls in with a group of women activists whose fight for the vote is gaining steam -- and desperation. She hears a speech from the movement's leader, Pankhurst, and manages a quick word with her. "Never surrender," the elder woman says.
And so Maud doesn't. She finds quarters with fellow suffragettes and becomes more emboldened by the day. She attacks her abusive boss and tells a police inspector (Brendan Gleeson) that the suffragettes are waging war because it's "the only language men listen to."
Mulligan -- whose portrayal is really the only truly nuanced one in the film, though Helena Bonham Carter gives fine support as a fellow warrior -- finds a way to project determination and zeal but also sadness and hopelessness, all at once.
SUFFRAGETTE (B)
Directed by Sarah Gavron. PG-13 (some intense violence, thematic elements, brief strong language and partial nudity). 106 minutes. At the Dallas and Plano Angelikas and the AMC NorthPark.
