Suffragette Review

Justin, Dad, & I saw Suffragette on November 9, 2015!! This is easily one of the best movies of 2015!! It certainly deserves awards accolades for the Golden Globes and the Oscars. There is no question about it. This movie blended a tumultuous historic time period during the British suffragette movement blended with an original story centering on a sect of working class women in the UK.

The movie centers on three themes: the female vote, a mother's rights as it pertains to her children, & societal relationships of men and women. Centering on the character of Maud Watts, we follow her as she starts out as an obedient woman, listening to whatever men tell her to do and following the order of the day. As we watch the movie progess, actions and words ignite a spark that grows within her to join a powerful movement to create change for women in the United Kingdom. There were so many instances where V For Vendetta was on my mind, and that's great to see. The suffragettes have to resort to the same type of deeds (as Emeline Pankhurst instructs her followrs) that V does to create some change. Words weren't working. Sometimes, it takes extreme measures: sacrifice, blood, sweat, and tears to achieve a goal. The passion of these women to overcome struggle is amazing to watch. Physically and mentally, these brave foot soldiers started a true "diva's revolution" (wrestling term) that saw many casualties, but ultimately would be effective in creating change.

Since I saw her in An Education, Carey Mulligan instantly became one of my favorite actresses. I consider her to be one of the very best actresses today. I love watching Mulligan's Maud evolve over the course of the movie-her scenes in Parliament discussing wage raises & the women's vote, burning the chauvinist douche with the iron, and the interrogation scene with Brendan Gleeson where you finally see how much this vote and her rights as a mother would mean in the grand scope of things were incredible to watch.  Carey Mulligan deserves a Best Actress nomination for this movie. I legitimately have liked her in everything she's done from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps to Drive to Shame to An Education to The Great Gatsby to her smaller role in Inside Llewyn Davis-her commitment to her roles and her natural talent make her such a force in the movie industry. Her work as Maud is such a defining acting achievement. You laugh with her, cry with her, and get agitated with her as we follow her journey throughout the movie.

I think Helena Bonham Carter's Edith Ellyn was a great supporting character-she is really the one that served as the general on the frontlines for the sufragettes, while Meryl Streep's Emmeline Pankhurst acts as the queen of the movement. Streep had a cameo, but the speech was delivered well and you can tell Streep was into it. Pankhurst's speech, Ellyn's training, Maud's growing passion, & the drive & sacrifice of women like Emily Davison (the derby scene was excellent-the sudden silence on screen combined with the images & raw emotion was superb) shows that the men can oppress, the men can beat them, but they will not take their fight, because the women will fight back and the women will get the votes, the equality, and mother's rights. This movie gets a definite 5/5 for me, especially for a show stealing, career defining performance by Carey Mulligan as Maud & a tremendous movie exploring an intriguing time period in the women's movement, as well as combining it with an original story showing how far the struggle went.