Made in Dagenham (2010)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's 1968. Ford of Britain has one of the biggest car plant in Dagenham exporting to the rest of Europe. It employs 55k, 187 of them women. The women are seamstresses sewing car seat covers. The working conditions are bad and then the company wants to downgrade their work as unskilled. Union rep Albert Passingham (Bob Hoskins) advises them an one-day stoppage. Rita O'Grady (Sally Hawkins) becomes the leader of the group. It escalates to a full strike demanding equal pay for equal work. Everybody condescends to the ladies except for Passingham who was raised by a single mom. The union negotiator wants to collaborate with Ford. The plant shuts down and the men are unhappy. The Labour government is facing rampant strikes and declining production. They call in fixer Robert Tooley (Richard Schiff) to put pressure on the girls. Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson) sees both the injustice and the dangers of losing jobs. Meanwhile, Rita finds an allie in fellow parent Lisa Hopkins (Rosamund Pike) when their kids face an abusive teacher.This is Norma Rae on steroids. It's a rousing fight for equality. Sally Hawkins is simply amazing. She is one of the best out there. Her humanity is absolutely non-negotiable. There are several unforgettable scenes and characters. Her relationship with Lisa Hopkins is truly touching and one scene between them is heart-breaking. Rita and her husband have another incredible scene. The amiable and well-meaning husband is nicely played by Daniel Mays. Their big confrontation has a powerful conclusion. Overall, this is a rousing union movie with an amazing lead performance.

A heart-warming ode to life in industrial Britain in the late '60's, 'Made in Dagenham' is a superb film, focused on the plight of female workers in a male-dominated world, and the ladies are well and truly to the fore, none more so than a brilliant Sally Hawkins who gives us a quietly determined and ultimately unshakeable character to root for. Geraldine James and Andrea Riseborough are as good in her support, infusing very different parts with careworn vulnerability and indomitable bravado respectively. And the men are by no means made of straw, the always excellent Bob Hoskins is in top form as the wily union rep, while Daniel Mays makes playing second fiddle an art as the sidelined husband, and there is a rousing performance when Richard Schiff makes a delightfully unexpected appearance as the uncaring American exec. It would be easy to go on rhyming off wonderful turns by fine members of the cast, but two more must be singled out for attention. Miranda Richardson is superbly short-tempered and impatient as woman-at-the-top Barbara Castle, and Roger Lloyd-Pack's performance is a heart-wrenching reminder of a war not so long past at that time. In the end 'Made in Dagenham' is a triumph on many levels, and great credit must go to writer William Ivory and director Nigel Cole, it is worth watching for the production design alone. Made in Britain, Rule Britannia, God Save the Queen, etc.

Sally Hawkins' Golden Globe winning in 2009 for HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (2008) prompts herself to the eminent status as a new rising star from UK, so two years later, she acquired another hard- earned leading role in this Nigel Cole (CALENDAR GIRLS 2003, a 7/10) helmed biographic story of women's fighting for equal rights (equal pay). It is rather hard to believe that merely half-a-century ago, equal pay would induce such a startling pain-in-the-neck in UK, the most advanced and civilised country in the world, which should have been taken for granted by anyone anywhere now without a second thought. So each and every little progress in the human history needs tremendous effort to push behind it, and gladly this film is able to manage a solid job to portray such an effort with a strongly female- skewed cast. Hawkins has an ardent inner power within her willowy body, the most intense scene is the explosive encounter between her and her husband (Daniel Mays), when she shoots back with the punchline "It is what it should be!", definitely a soul-lifting achievement just by one single line and her current ranking is among my top 5 in the leading actress category. Then comes to the supporting group, Oscar-nominees Hoskins and Richardson are both fine, but unfortunately no scene-stealing moment; otherwise veteran Geraldine James and the former Bond-girl Rosamund Pike are the lucky ones here, the former is compellingly amiable even in her saddest time, while the latter deftly utilising her very meagre screen time to declare her faculty in transform some average shots into her personal proscenium (she is among my top 10 supporting actress list). The film may not be an idiosyncratic piece of work which should have infusing new blood into the heartening but vaguely worn-out biography breed, and more or less, its narrative strategy is too formal and a trifle conservative, but it has its flair in instilling a feel-good assurance to its audience without being dictatorial and sermonic, plus an adroit engineering of its source material into its maximum momentum, and last not the least, a laudable UK troupe is the key of it.

An excellent film focused on women at a Ford manufacturing plant outside London in the late '60's and their quest for first fair, then equal pay.The story is very well told and all the factory women do wonderful jobs portraying the travails of their situation. Sally Hawkins portrays wonderfully the woman who, somewhat reluctantly became the leader of the women and Bob Hoskins is perfect as the mid level union functionary subtly driving the process.Richard Schiff is wonderful as the evil face of Ford sent to London to quell the strike and Rosamund Pike does a brilliant turn as the long suffering wife of the plant manager who supports and nudges the process along in the union direction.Miranda Richardson, normally a star in films like this, has a terrible script to work with; as do her two bumbling staff members. The semi-comical performances of these three are at odds with the rest of the film. This unfortunate scripting keeps the film from a four star rating.Still, a film well worth seeing; especially later in the film as personal relationships, and changes to them as a result of the strike, are delved into.