Susan Granger’s review of “Made in Dagenham” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Reminiscent of “Norma Rae,” for which Sally Field won an Academy Award as Best Actress, this is based on a true story about a determined group of women who joined forces to demand equal pay in England’s Ford Motor plant, back in 1968.
Feisty Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) is a young married mother who toils diligently in a decrepit old factory with a leaky roof and pigeons flying overhead. Although she and her 186 cohorts are responsible for sewing car seat upholstery to exacting specifications, they’re classified as “unskilled” textile labor and paid only a fraction of what men in the automaker’s main facility receive. Rita joins with Belinda (Andrea Riseborough), Sandra (Jamie Winstone), Eileen (Nicola Duffett), Monica (Lorraine Stanley) and Connie (Geraldine James), the shop steward, to protest, supported by Albert (Bob Hoskins), the union representative, and garnering the sympathy of Lisa Hopkins (Rosamund Pike), the Cambridge-educated wife of sexist Ford executive Peter Hopkins (Rupert Graves).
When their legitimate grievances go unanswered, spunky Rita leads her sisterhood out on strike, expanding her campaign to other underpaid women. When the Ford plant, the region’s primary employer, runs out of finished seat upholstery, it’s forced to close, prompting many of the laid-off men to become belligerent, turning against the striking women, including Rita’s husband Eddy (Daniel Mays).
By daring to stand up and to demand a fair deal, the strike by the Dagenham sewing machinists led to the introduction of an Equal Pay Act, which became law in 1970, heralded by Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson), Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity under Harold Wilson’s government.
British director Nigel Cole, who made “Saving Grace” and “The Calendar Girls,” utilizes his experience with upbeat, working-class stories, and plucky, hard-working Sally Hawkins is best remembered for her Oscar-nominated performance as the titular sunny heroine in Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky.” So this fictionalized, down-to-earth docu-drama, written by William Ivory, is a genuine crowd-pleaser.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Made in Dagenham” (pronounced Dagen’m) is an exuberant, inspirational 8. It’s strikingly good.
