Checked out the movie Suffragette which I think just opened wide (or expanded). This is a movie about women’s right to vote in England in 1912 and is very serious and I, I suspect, a big Oscar hopeful. I’m not sure it’ll get there.

Which isn’t to say the movie is bad, but it is rather drab looking and very serious but also earnest and well-meaning. It is an important topic but I was a little baffled that the movie was set in 1912 but women didn’t gain the right to vote in England until 1928 (as the end title cards stated). So what was so important in 1912?

Well, in a bit of poor timing, this was the period where the “suffragettes” went from protesting to throwing rocks through windows and then blowing up post office boxes, offices, and homes to get their point across. It’s not the movie’s fault that the Paris attacks hit the night before I saw the movie but it did taint the movie slightly.

But, to be fair, I think I would have not scored this movie too highly regardless. It’s a good topic for a film, but the movie is just a little too somber, a little too drab, and a little too ponderous. It needed a little more life but instead everything kind of looks like Charles Dickens is right around the corner writing about sickly orphans who want some more.

This isn’t a bad movie.. but I’m not sure it’s telling the right story with the right ambiance. Maybe it’s informative and maybe it’s (positively) rabble-rousing over women’s rights in general and voting around the world… but I think good intentions are not enough for a good movie.

Score: 74