Taking aim at the best and worst of movies and television.
R (strong language, brief sexuality); 113 min.
Tales of woman-powered, working-class triumph make for such terrific theater: the fetching underdog, the villainous bigwigs, the up-from-their-bootstraps story arc and stingingly righteous monologues.
Think of Norma Rae, Erin Brockovich, Silkwood. And now: Made in Dagenham, a peppy period labor drama about underpaid women at a Ford plant in suburban London, 1968, who go on strike for higher pay and wind up demanding wholesale societal change. There's nothing too surprising in their story, even for Yanks who don't know a thing about British feminism (or politics, for that matter). But it's still a spirited look -- well-written, beautifully acted, full of uplift -- at lovably cheeky heroines on the march for a little respect.
The cheekiest and most lovable is Rita O'Grady (Sally Hawkins), a married mom of two who works as a sewing machinist at Ford's Dagenham campus. The machinists' building is a sweatshop packed with women long accustomed to bad conditions. But it's a sorority, too; arriving for work on a steamy day, they undress down to their bras and panties and chat like gals at a sleepover. When the opposite sex arrives on the premises, a whoop goes up ("MAN!"), and the clothes go on.
One day, that man is Albert (Bob Hoskins), a labor rep who asks if they'd like to protest a recent cut in their pay grade -- they're now "unskilled" -- with a ban on overtime and a one-day stoppage. When Albert arrives a second time, he recruits Rita for a face-to-face with Ford management.
Whipping out a purse full of upholstery samples, she tells the gents to go ahead and sew up the pieces into a proper car seat (it's not skilled labor, right?), then announces that the women are going on strike.
The cast nails it. Hawkins is, as ever, a darling presence on screen, emitting that mix of vulnerability and thumping optimism that made Happy-Go-Lucky so delightful.
Nigel Cole directs with sympathetic verve, and William Ivory's screenplay ticks off the usual plot devices but injects real warmth into each of them: This is a modest, heartfelt film about a modest, heartfelt woman who found her voice -- and helped make history.
Exclusive: Landmark Inwood, Dallas; Angelika Plano
A version of this review appeared in Thursday's Your Life section.
-- Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle
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