Eugene weekly., January 20, 2011, Page 20, Image 20

movies
BY JASON BLAIR
Strike Won
In 1968, women fight for equal pay
MADE IN DAGENHAM: Directed by Nigel
Cole. Written by Billy Ivory. Cinematography,
John de Borman. Music, David Arnold.
Starring Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson,
Bob Hoskins and Rosamund Pike. Sony
Pictures Classics, 2010. R. 113 minutes.
44211
M
ade in Dagenham is the story
of the Ford seamstresses who,
during the summer of 1968,
went on strike when they were reclassifi ed
as unskilled labor. Their job was to stitch
seat covers, which is hard enough to say,
let alone do, over and over without making
a mistake. While the actual participants
of the sewing machinists’ strike were
employed at two different assembly
plants, Made in Dagenham (rhymes with
bubblegum) takes a cozier point of view,
imagining a more coherent group housed
conveniently under one roof. If only the
convenience ended there. Loose, frilly
and as morally complex as an episode of
Laverne and Shirley, Made in Dagenham
takes an epic struggle for equal rights and
drenches it in melodrama and cliché.
It didn’t have to be this way. While
director Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls) has
made a career out of loopy, conventional
comedies, this time around he’s enlisted
Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) as his
leading lady. Hawkins, a slight brunette
who resembles a young Lily Tomlin,
specializes in perpetually befuddled
women who discover their hidden strength.
In Made in Dagenham, Hawkins portrays
Rita, a competent, self-deprecating
seamstress whose quivering voice is at
odds with her extroverted peers. Note her
early, brief confrontation with her son’s
abusive schoolteacher, after which she’s
left speechless by his arrogance. We’re
intended to see her as an afterthought, as
a bystander in the upcoming labor dispute,
but even casual viewers won’t be fooled:
This is the fi rst and last time Rita will be
dumbstruck in Made in Dagenham. So
it follows that, in the very next scene,
she’s asked by her supervisor (a lively
Bob Hoskins) to represent her fellow
machinists at the union bargaining table.
Based on what qualifi cations we can only
guess, although guessing what comes next
is all too easy in Made in Dagenham.
Such overly constructed, overly pat
plotting is part of what holds back the fi lm.
To its credit, while Made in Dagenham is
light-hearted, it’s also large-spirited in its
treatment of the seamstresses, a cheeky
bunch who are aided by a wealthy insider
(Rosamund Pike, Never Let Me Go) and
Secretary of State Barbara Castle (a wry
Miranda Richardson). But the men of
Dagenham are such oafs, such morons
of universal thick-headedness, that their
incompetence actually undermines the
women’s eventual victory. In short, these
men are trampled too easily. Dagenham
is hobbled by a movie version of history
in which a couple of short, well-timed
speeches can change people’s outlook
— and change the world. What’s more,
the fi lm adheres to its era like a pair
of hot pants, at times seeming overly
preoccupied with its day-glo costumes and
“Wooly Bully” soundtrack. In other words,
Dagenham resorts to old stereotypes about
short skirts, tall hair and using sex to get
men’s attention. It’s not a bust so much as
a collection of busts in search of a better
movie.
ew
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20 JANUARY 20, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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