Hawkins brightens up ‘Made in Dagenham’

Following is the review of “Made in Dagenham” that I wrote for Spokane Public Radio:

If one of Hollywood’s more memorable real-life images involves Sally Field hoisting her second Oscar while exclaiming, “You like me! Right now, you like me!” then certainly one of the enduring movie images dates from Martin Ritt’s 1979 film “Norma Rae,” the work that won Field that second gold statuette. It comes during the scene when, cast as the title character, Field stands on a textile-factory work table hoisting a sign bearing a single scrawled word: “Union.”

While that word, union, likely would have felt alien to workers in a 1970s-era Alabama cotton plant, it was well known in 1968 to the employees at Ford Motor Company’s plant in Dagenham, England. For better and — yes — for worse, Unions were a way of English life.

Equality, however, wasn’t. And though it would be easy to label “Made in Dagenham” as the British “Norma Rae,” the two have one major difference: The American film is about the birth of union fever, the British film about the ongoing struggle for women to gain equal pay.

Directed by Nigel Cole and based on a screenplay inspired by real events, “Made in Dagenham” doesn’t begin as a tale of suffragette fury. In fact, when the film begins, the women who work at Dagenham’s Ford plant are as compliant as the fabric — is that real leather or merely Pleather? — they sew to make auto seat covers.

One such worker, Rita O’Grady (played by Sally Hawkins), has a mostly secure and simple life. She and her husband, also a Ford employee, live with their two children in company housing. Bright and well liked, Rita nevertheless suffers from the kind of inhibitions that affect all of us who were raised without expectations — or, better said, without the kind of emotional support about how best to achieve those expectations. Thus when confronted by a teacher who bullies both students and their parents, she can’t find the words she needs to protest.

But when she is picked by the union shop steward (played by veteran Bob Hoskins) to be part of the union local’s negotiating team, she suddenly does find a voice. And while what she says doesn’t please everyone — union leaders, Ford executives, even friends and family — she charges on, evolving as a person first, then as the woman who has chosen to fill the roles of mother, wife and friend. Ultimately, her energy affects everyone, not just her family and fellow workers but also a Cambridge-educated wife of a Ford executive (played by Rosamund Pike) and a woman cabinet minister (played by Miranda Richardson) who is sympathetic to the struggle.

Much about “Made in Dagenham” feels, well, convenient. And a closing sequence done documentary-style, which feature some of the real women who dared to stand up for their rights, gives a hint of how powerful such a feature-length documentary telling of this story could be.

But Hawkins — an Oscar nominee in 2009 for “Happy-Go-Lucky” — is always worth watching; she’s an infectious performer, investing every line, every glance with something intriguingly interior. And I never tire of seeing stories of women striving for a voice, rightfully demanding to be treated in a way that puts them on equal footing with men.

So while “Made in Dagenham” may boast no signature Sally Field moment, it doesn’t really need one. One of Hawkins’ crooked grins of triumph is more than enough.

Below : The trailer for “Made in Dagenham.”