This is big screen TV material. A bit of humour; a bit of heart-string tugging; a bit of stereotyping; a bit of costume drama, a bit of vintage vehicle spotting; a bit of real life documentary; a bit of 'celebrity star' spotting - actors playing roles you wouldn't think they'd take; a bit of flesh baring, a bit of social comment; a bit of this and everything else so as no one feels left out. Trouble is, this makes it a Jack & Jill of all trades and master/mistress of none. It is, at the end of the day, a superficial treatment of a ground breaking industrial dispute. The best you learn is that Ford employed 44,000 people in the UK at the time and it was only 187 women they refused to give equal pay to. That makes Ford's threat to take their manufacturing business elsewhere because of the additional costs associated with paying the women their dues very hollow...as shallow as this film. Nevertheless, there is some great character acting from Miranda Richardson, John Sessions, Kenneth Cranham, Bob Hoskins and a very slimline Richard Schiff (you know....him off West Wing)
Review of Made in Dagenham
