Women in the United States got equality under the law by a kind of accident— a ban on sex discrimination was added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by opponents who thought doing so would kill the bill. In the UK, there was still nothing in 1968 to keep Ford Motor Company from paying its female employees—who, we’re told, numbered 87 as against 55,000 males—less than men doing similar work. This film, in entertaining fashion, tells the story of how a strike by seamstresses against Ford in suburban London began the movement that changed the law.
The subject matter may suggest something altogether serious, but it’s more of a crowd-pleaser in the way that, say, Erin Brokovich was. Sally Hawkins plays the fictional heroine, who has Erin’s spunk, if not her sexuality. The director, Nigel Cole, is best known for Calendar Girls and the Ashton Kutcher-Amanda Peet romance A Lot Like You. Despite having a different writer (William Ivory), this has much the flavor of Calendar Girls, being a celebration of feminine virtue and (in this case) the working class. Typical of the light humor is an early scene in which one of the women sneaks away from a company function to shag her boyfriend. “Chop, chop, or we’ll miss the buffet,” she tells him. It is, after all, the swinging ’60s.
At the same time, the movie presents the drama clearly enough to keep from drifting off into girl-power mush. It doesn’t, for example, present all of the men as opponents of change. Bob Hoskins plays a union rep who is the women’s staunchest supporter. The film shows how the union itself, and the ruling Labour Party, were reluctant to take up the women’s cause. Miranda Richardson plays Barbara Castle, the cabinet minister who interceded on the women’s behalf. And Hawkins gets a role nearly as good as her brilliant turn in Happy-Go-Lucky.
IMDB link
viewed 1/6/11 at Ritz Bourse and reviewed 1/23/11
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