Film Review - Suffragette (2015)

Suffragette tells the tale of the Suffragette movement in 1912 Britain where Women protested for their right to vote (a right by the way that Australian Women got ten years earlier in 1902 a year after the formation of our Federation.) led by the mysterious Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) who is inspiring violence against the establishment to achieve their goal of equality, a goal that begins to inspire Maud Watts (Carey Milligan.)

Suffragette could've been a great film about an inspiring cause that still resonates with us today in modern day feminism though with much more peaceful means than the ones Pankhurst calls for in this movie, unfortunately this movie tells its great tale very poorly for three key reasons:

- The first is that you never feel intellectually compelled to follow the movement which is for a lot of movements throughout our own history a key element in getting people on side, instead it's just scenes of women sitting around talking, running in dark streets at night (the film looks ugly at times with its many night scenes and shaky cam close up shots) or being beaten and abused by the men around them be it in their homes or workplaces.

As a result of this I just found myself being unengaged by the rally scenes and almost bored by the film itself and a cause like this should make you want to care about it, want to follow it (indeed there were numerous Suffragettes all over the world, where was their story in the film) want to feel inspired to care about it I mean this is how these movements work, they spell out what they stand for under a charismatic leader and their followers become inspired to carry out the will of that movement and its leaders.

And that could be this film or indeed En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse from the X-Men's birth name) himself the very first mutant who preys on the weaknesses of others to serve him as the Horsemen of Death, War, Pestilence, Famine he who is the instrument to purify the world, who says loudly that we are all his children but we're lost because we choose to follow blind leaders.

And that Everything We've Built will Fall and from the Ashes from their World We'll Build a Better One and who asks us to Look Upon the Future and Tremble for there is no Freedom from him but only Freedom through him but he is not Evil or Malevolent he Simply Is, I know I'm going on and on but this is an example of that sort of movement done right and here it just fails miserably to get you to care all that much.

After all Apocalypse was what inspired the Cult of Akkaba who worship him.

- This ties into the second problem I have with this film and that's the characters, frankly all of them are boring or wasted in their potential, Maud could've been out every girl our way into this movement who becomes inspired to fight for her right to be recognised in the law but instead she just sits around and cries a lot and plays out the stereotype of the single mum, there's also the stereotypes of the controlling husband, the pregnant lady, the chief warrior and the enigmatic leader and they aren't much interesting either.

- And lastly the film wastes its great cast, Mulligan is boring as Maud and just resorts to her cry face for most of the film, Helena Bonham Carter is good but even her character didn't do much for me, Ben Wishaw I found very hard to believe as Maud's hard hearted husband, Anne-Marie Duff was not that interesting as Violet and Brendan Gleeson did okay as the detective on the Suffragette's trail.

But the biggest waste of all was Streep because FINALLY she is given a great role to sink her teeth into and its all wasted as basically a glorified cameo, when I saw her scene I thought to myself "This is inspired casting" but instead it's just another waste of a great talent in a film that sadly is guilty of all throughout its casting.

I really wanted to love Suffragette I really did because all the elements were there for a really special film but instead it's just one that deeply deeply disappoints me and overall just feels mediocre, 1 out of 5.