Empire UK

UFFRAGETTE

blows the dust

off history in an

involving women-

driven drama with

a political thriller

element and thought-

provoking contemporary relevance for

men and women equally. Somehow

‘suffragettes’ — originally a twee term for

suffragists coined in derision by aDaily

Mailjournalist and gleefully embraced

by the women’s movement — have

acquired a quaint image as shrill ladies

in bloomers who chained themselves to

railings. People have forgotten British

women were beaten tortured and died

to win the right to vote that too many

now neglect to exercise.

Screenwriter Abi Morgan cleverly

sidesteps the leaders of the movement

— largely privileged educated women

frustrated by social and economic

Suff ragette

★★★★

OUT OCTOBER 12 / CERT. 12A / 106 MINS.

DIRECTOR Sarah Gavron

CAST Carey Mulligan Helena Bonham

Carter Brendan Gleeson Anne-Marie

Duff Ben Whishaw Meryl Streep

PLOT In 1912 laundress Maud Watts

(Mulligan) is fearful of the militant

suffragettes urging her to join them.

But a lifetime’s abuse and humiliation

eventually drive her to act in hope

of a better future.

inequities — and focuses on the foot

soldier a working woman wife and

mother. Carey Mulligan’s touching Maud

has spent her life toiling in a grim laundry.

Marriage to Sonny (Ben Whishaw) has

given her tenuous security and a cherished

child. Life is about working hard and

knowing her place. But Maud’s curiosity

is piqued by an activist co-worker

(Anne-Marie Duff ) and the rebellious

wife (Romola Garai) of an antipathetic

politician (Samuel West). Clandestine

meetings with a local militant (Helena

Bonham Carter) are monitored by the

Man From The Met (Brendan Gleeson)

and Maud is dangerously committed to

an underground cell an illegal course

of action and a horrifi c ordeal.

Aptly iconic Meryl Streep cameos

as charismatic Emmeline Pankhurst

emerging from hiding to incite her

admiring troops to rebellion. But even

in this scene it is Mulligan’s radiant face

that gets to the heart of the matter

despair ignited into hope and aspiration.

Director Sarah Gavron is impressively

capable with both the character drama

and big tense set-pieces like the violently

disrupted demonstrations the militants’

“terrorist” acts and the climactic Epsom

Derby where a fateful statement marks

a landmark moment in the movement.

But what strikes one most forcibly is how

grievances indignities and the desperate

desire to be heard must eventually be

addressed by a society. AE

VERDICT A wonderfully involving moving

Carey Mulligan and the spirited ensemble

around her fl esh out a handsomely

crafted timely look at why and how far

people are willing to go for a cause.

Carey Mulligan’s

downtrodden

Maud toils for

a fairer society.

The Nightmare
★★★
OUT OCTOBER 9 / CERT. 15 / 87 MINS.
DIRECTOR Rodney Ascher CAST Yatoya
Toy Nicole Bosworth Siegfried Peters

➞ Ascher’s follow-up to the brilliantly
bizarre Room 237 is an exploration of
‘sleep paralysis’ a condition in which
sufferers are trapped between sleep
and wakefulness experiencing terrifying
visual and aural hallucinations. Eight
sufferers are interviewed on camera
while Ascher brings their experiences
to life in a way that could conceivably
induce nightmares in casual viewers
— although the potency of these
scenes is ultimately diminished by
repetition. Equally problematic is
Ascher’s determination to explore the
phenomenon empirically rather than
scientifi cally: at no point is a white-
coated polysomnographist wheeled out
to talk about the possible causes. DH

We’ll Never Have Paris
★★
OUT OCTOBER 9 / CERT. TBC / 92 MINS.
DIRECTORS Simon Helberg Jocelyn
Towne CAST Simon Helberg Melanie
Lynskey Maggie Grace

➞ Enjoyable support from Alfred
Molina (matter-of-fact dad) and Zachary
Quinto (hippie best friend) can’t quite
save this semi-fi ctionalised account
of the two directors’ complicated
courting process. The plot: co-director/
star Simon Helberg (Howard from The
Big Bang Theory) travels to the City Of
Love™ to win back ‘the one’ played
by Melanie Lynskey. The problem: the
nebbishness is spot on but it lacks
vintage Woody Allen’s charm and
humour with our hero’s bastardly
actions just making him look like a
bastard leaving it impossible to root
for him when he does blunder his
way into a happy-ever-after. AP