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View Full Version : Suffragette (Sarah Gavron)



TGM
11-16-2015, 01:49 AM
SUFFRAGETTE

Director: Sarah Gavron

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3077214/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Suffragette_poster.jpg

Spinal
11-16-2015, 08:24 PM
I'm a bit disappointed by the lukewarm reviews I've read of this, as I think this subject matter deserves epic treatment on the level of Goodfellas or something like that.

TGM
11-16-2015, 08:43 PM
I thought it was okay overall. My biggest issue comes with the ending, which I sorta have to go into spoilers to discuss, so...

The culminating moment of the movie comes when one of the women sacrifices her life, jumping into the middle of a horse race and getting herself killed, thus gaining national attention for their cause. The thing about this is, the woman this happens to is such a small character. Of the main ladies we follow, she's like a fourth or fifth string character who we really don't actually know anything about (and taking ALL of the characters into account, she's even further down that list in order of importance), and who just sorta happens to be there from time to time throughout the movie. Meanwhile, there's TONS of development for a plethora of other side characters, many of whom find themselves sidelines during this portion of the movie. So, when the moment happens, it just sorta falls flat, because it happened to such a non-character who we really aren't ever given any reason to care about, and I found myself waiting for the big climactic followup, only to realize that, oh, this was the big dramatic moment the movie was leading to. They treat it with this huge importance, with all of the focus on the funeral proceedings that follow, and the actual results of the attention her actions garnered being relegated to title cards before the credits roll.

This just seems like such sloppy, shitty writing that could have been so easily avoided, especially when you come to find out late on that a majority of the characters we were following were already fictional anyways. So if that's the case, and a lot of what we were seeing wasn't even based on actual real events, why, then, couldn't more time and importance be placed on the character who's actions would be the absolute most central to getting results in the end?

So needlessly anti-climactic, on top of the number of other loose threads that kinda just go unaddressed as the movie just sorta ends. Up until that point, I was honestly fine with the movie. Well shot, well acted, and with a very important message. And the stuff centered around Carey Mulligan's character's life at home was definitely the most powerful stuff of the film. But damn if the execution in the end didn't just completely fumble the ball and leave an unimpressed taste in my mouth, and the worst thing about it was that this was entirely avoidable, which is why it really bugs me as much as it ended up doing.