As the campaign to achieve the right to vote in early-20th-century Britain intensifies and splinters into factions, a few militaristic, a mother and wife (Carey Mulligan) who has toiled for a nominal wage in a laundry since adolescence becomes involved in the women's-right movement. One of Suffragette's finest attributes is the way it depicts history in the suspenseful present tense. It does not encase itself in noble and/or polemical amber, but instead unfolds as a series of gut-wrenching decisions, ferocious protests, last-minute evasions of the police, and clandestine late-night gatherings, shot with an immersive hand-held camera and cut to maximize a sense of crisis and strategy. (It is almost too rapidly paced and forward charging at certain points. The climactic buildup to a violent day at the 1913 Derby could use more clarity.) It is a well-acted film, too. Mulligan, playing fictional heroine Maud, provides determined and expressive eyes through which the audience can regard this 100-year-old sociopolitical environment and its customs and hardships, and Helena Bonham Carter is a captivating and unfaltering presence as a pharmacist entirely ready to embrace militancy. Another standout is the always regal Brendan Gleeson as a Special Branch detective ordered to spy on and capture the suffragettes the way he previously has anarchists and Irish republicans; Gleeson perfectly laces his portrayal of a hard, wily policeman with tantalizing hints of moral doubt and reluctant respect for those he pursues.

A-

I found this to be quite solid with very good performances. It really captures the time and place very well, and the desperation of these women in that situation. However, I did feel like the camerawork was problematic. Opting for more steady camerawork rather than handheld, and fewer closeups could have made for a better experience. And I do feel like the script at some points ventures into the didactic, and I had an issue with how the big dramatic moments were punctuated to highlight shock value. Otherwise, the film can be illuminating about the struggles of women, and it's a fittingly bleak portrayal of Maud's increasing involvement in the suffragette movement and the consequences that involvement has on her life. B

Mulligan is strong here and the film does a good job keeping the story from falling short. All that being said, the film doesn't take the extra step to truly stand out from similar films.