SILVER

In the story of London laundry worker Maud (Carey Mulligan), SUFFRAGETTE reveals the working women whose actions for social justice were the foundation for the early feminist movement. Having seen peaceful protest achieve nothing, and inspired by leaders such as Emmeline Pankhurst, the workers were radicalized, and turned to violence in their quest for voting rights. Mulligan deftly balances vulnerability with strength in the lead role, an unassuming everywoman who, guided by suffrage movement veterans like pharmacist Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter) and firebrand Emily Davison (Natalie Press) and pushed to the brink by the abusive practices in her workplace, discovers a resolve she didn’t realize she had. With Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Samuel West, Anne-Marie Duff and Meryl Streep as women’s suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and a screenplay by award-winning writer Abi Morgan (THE IRON LADY, SHAME, BBC’s THE HOUR). DIR Sarah Gavron; SCR Abi Morgan; PROD Alison Owen, Faye Ward. UK, 2015, color, 106 min, DCP. RATED PG-13