Made in Dagenham isn’t a groundbreaking piece of story telling. It’s essentially your typical story of people fighting through a hardship and coming out on top in the end. What makes it better than the rest are the performances, most notably the performance of Sally Hawkins who may be small in stature, but she can sure deliver a wallop of emotion.
Directed by Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls), the film centers on a group of women working at Dagenham’s Ford Motor Factory in the 1960s as they struggle for the right to earn equal pay as their male counterparts. The story specifically focuses on Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins) as she becomes the voice of the group once they decide to go on strike, effectively halting production in the factory. It’s a move that cripples the company, but at the same time ends up having a dramatic effect on her and her co-workers’ families. No work, no money.
Hawkins is probably best known at the moment as the peppy and sometimes annoyingly gleeful character Poppy from Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, a role that won her a Golden Globe, but found her snubbed for an Oscar nom. She was underused in Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go earlier this year, but finally has a chance to shine in Made in Dagenham and she does just that.
There’s a lovable quality to Hawkins and her characters, but on top of that the determination and will she gives to Rita in this film is palpable. It’s a character that you can respect, primarily for the fact that while you notice her strengths and intelligence, there is also a measure of vulnerability there. She realizes the position she’s putting herself, her friends and her family in, and in turn does her best to remedy all situations and it’s this fight that becomes the heartbeat of the film.
Along with Hawkins, I love the performance of Daniel Mays, whom first really impressed me as Tommy Nettle in Joe Wright’s Atonement. Like Hawkins, Mays has a face that shows his emotion fully. These are two actors that don’t need words to do the acting for them, they wear their emotions on their faces and the value of each of their scenes increases ten-fold as a result.
Miranda Richardson is also solid in a rather small performance as Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, and it’s her character that’s asked to meet the mettle exhibited by Rita and her co-workers and when she is asked to cower in the face of her higher ups you realize how big an issue they’re dealing with.
The one thing that may be overlooked by the film’s end — which is a signal of a start rather than an actual end — is the fact the fight for equal pay is still going on, even in this country. Only a few days ago the Paycheck Fairness Act was shot down in the United States Senate, falling two votes short. It was a measure designed to help in the fight against gender-based wage discrimination. It’s odd to think such issues could still plague what is considered to be an advanced society, but here we sit struggling with issues that plagued us 50 years ago.
Made in Dagenham, as a film, is a solid piece of filmmaking. But when looked at for the performance of Sally Hawkins it’s a true gem. Hawkins is one of cinema’s most overlooked and underrated actresses working right now, but I’m sure one day she’ll get her due. She has to; she’s only getting better.
