Romola Garai

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Suffragette Review

Excellent

Based on real events a century ago that still resonate loudly today, this movie takes a cleverly fictionalised angle to explore the suffrage movement, a story that astonishingly has never been put on film before. Screenwriter Abi Morgan's script brings intelligence and honesty to the characters, avoiding cliches to make the political statements as fresh and important today as they were back then. And it's anchored by another solid performance from Carey Mulligan.

She plays Maud, a young woman in 1912 London who has grown up working in a grim laundry, which is where she met her husband Sonny (Ben Whishaw). Then her best friend Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) introduces her to the women's voting rights movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep). And Maud is intrigued, joining with her local chemist's wife Edith (Helena Bonham Carter) for protests and getting involved in civil disobedience. This puts her on the list of offenders followed by a tenacious policeman (Brendan Gleeson), and Sonny finds it very difficult to cope with the embarrassment. So Maud has to make a very tough decision about whether to carry on the fight.

Making the film's main characters working-class heroines was a clever way to draw in modern-day audiences. In real life, the suffragettes were middle-class women who didn't particularly want any of the working class (men or women) to have the vote. But of course, once the movement started, it didn't end there, ultimately extending right through society. And the film cleverly mixes these fictional characters alongside real historical figures to bring the events vividly to life. Mulligan provides the emotional gut punch as an intelligent but uneducated woman who has been abused all her life and is finally standing up for herself. Her scenes with each of the supporting cast have real power, including less sympathetic characters like Whishaw's loving but fearful husband.

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'Suffragette' Premiere Disrupted By Feminist Protestors


Carey Mulligan Meryl Streep Helena Bonham Carter Romola Garai Anne-Marie Duff

Dozens of feminist protestors have staged a demonstration at the red carpet reception for the movie Suffragette, which held its premiere at Leicester Square in London on Wednesday afternoon.

Activists from the feminist group Sisters Uncut, who campaign against domestic violence, used the glitzy red carpet event to stage a vocal protest against funding cuts to domestic violence services, with nearly 100 demonstrators clambering over the barriers and lying down on the walkway, while their comrades shouted slogans such as “cuts kill” and “dead women don’t vote”.

Suffragette'Suffragette' stars at the Leicester Square premiere

Continue reading: 'Suffragette' Premiere Disrupted By Feminist Protestors

Meryl Streep's 'Suffragette' T-Shirts Provoke Angry Online Backlash


Meryl Streep Anne-Marie Duff Romola Garai Carey Mulligan

A publicity photo featuring Meryl Streep and her Suffragette co-stars in T-shirts bearing a feminist slogan has sparked a social media backlash.

Streep, Anne-Marie Duff, Romola Garai and Carey Mulligan were photographed for the front cover of Time Out London last week, with all four of them wearing white T-shirts featuring the phrase ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave’, which is an excerpt from an Emmeline Pankhurt speech urging reform of the law to allow women the right to vote.

While many have praised the feminist sentiments, a large number of critics have claimed that the use of the slogan on the T-shirts was insensitive of the historical context of the word ‘slave’. The photoshoot was also accused of inappropriately using four white, privileged women to invoke the struggles of slaves in the Confederate south.

Continue reading: Meryl Streep's 'Suffragette' T-Shirts Provoke Angry Online Backlash

Suffragette - Teaser Trailer


Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, a secret war took place on the streets of England. For years, women of all ages and classes had fought for their right to vote, although they used politics and reason as their biggest weapon. When no clear results were seen, a specialist group formed a more radical idea - to take the political campaign out of the shadows and into the streets, with protests and fighting to gain what was theirs by right. But as the government fights back even harder, desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Continue: Suffragette - Teaser Trailer

One Day Review


OK
Following a relationship on one day a year over more than 20 years is an interesting idea, and this film features a solid cast and some genuinely moving situations. But it's ultimately too slushy and dreamy to really resonate.

On St Swithin's Day, 15th July, in 1988, Emma (Hathaway) meets Dexter (Sturgess). Both are university students in Edinburgh, and there's a clear spark between them, but circumstances prevent them from becoming a couple. The years pass. Dexter moves from being an annoying TV host to a chef and has a daughter with Sylvie (Garai). Meanwhile, Emma has a career as a teacher and maintains an unsatisfying relationship with Ian (Spall). And they keep running into each other along the way, wondering what might have happened - and may yet happen - if they got together.

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One Day Trailer


Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew meet at Edinburgh University and graduate on July 15th, 1988. On the same day, they spend a chaste night together and begin a friendship that will last for the rest of their lives.

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Glorious 39 Review


Excellent
Telling a story from a rarely examined period of British history, this pre-war drama is a bundle of suspense, mystery and personal emotion that's beautifully filmed and sharply played by a first-rate cast.

Anne (Garai) is the adopted eldest daughter of powerful politician Alexander Keyes (Nighy) and his wife (Agutter), who went on to have two of their own children (Redmayne and Temple). It's the glorious summer of 1939, when Britain felt like it had averted conflict with Hitler, so when Anne stumbles on hints of a government conspiracy, she turns to a fellow actor (Bonneville) and her boyfriend (Cox) for help. But the mystery only deepens, compounded by a sinister Home Office official (Northam) and the distracting presence of her Aunt Elizabeth (Christie).

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Amazing Grace Review


Very Good
For a film with all the stylistic panache of a BBC period yawner and all the moral ambiguity of an after-school special, Amazing Grace is a surprisingly entertaining political drama. It tells the story of famed British abolitionist William Wilberforce's struggle to end the slave trade in England. Its high-minded earnestness and longsuffering main character will remind movie buffs of another cinematic treatment of British history, A Man for All Seasons, but it's another similarity shared by these two films that sets Amazing Grace apart from all but a few mainstream movies being made today. Amazing Grace, like A Man for All Seasons, is a serious film about religious conviction and the power of individual believers to effect change in a world in need of redemption.

Make no mistake: Amazing Grace is not a complex movie. The good guys are good and the bad guys aren't so much bad as they are yet to become good. Such a simple and optimistic moral vision may seem antiquated to some, but Amazing Grace doesn't apologize for its old-fashioned piety. As the action starts, Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) undergoes a religious conversion. His long-abandoned childhood faith has once again stirred his heart and moved him to commit to doing whatever he can to improve the world. Already a member of Parliament, he asks several of his friends -- including the clergyman John Newton (Albert Finney), who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" -- if he should continue his political career or move on to a more spiritual pursuit. At all of his friends' urging, Wilberforce chooses politics and not long after takes an unpopular stand on the issue that will dominate his political career thereafter: the slave trade.

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Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Review


Bad
In the middle of the lousy Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Patrick Swayze makes an appearance as a hotel dance instructor. At first, I laughed like mad over this kitschy connection: Swayze! This was tremendous. Were more Dirty Dancing alumni going to appear? Was Cynthia Rhodes going to pop up as a chorus girl? Jennifer Grey as a lifeguard?

However, as a still agile Swayze danced with the new movie's star, Romola Garai, it dawned on me: The new movie needed Swayze, or rather his hunky heir. Part of what made the original Dirty Dancing so appealing was Swayze's presence. Physically, you couldn't take your eyes off him, and he had a cool, aloof sex appeal that set up good girl Grey to fall madly in love with him. And Grey did a masterful job falling for his charms, slowly and assuredly.

Continue reading: Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Review

Romola Garai

Romola Garai Quick Links

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Romola Garai Movies

Suffragette Movie Review

Suffragette Movie Review

Based on real events a century ago that still resonate loudly today, this movie takes...

Suffragette - Teaser Trailer

Suffragette - Teaser Trailer

Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, a secret war took place on...

One Day Movie Review

One Day Movie Review

Following a relationship on one day a year over more than 20 years is an...

One Day Trailer

One Day Trailer

Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew meet at Edinburgh University and graduate on July 15th, 1988....

Glorious 39 Movie Review

Glorious 39 Movie Review

Telling a story from a rarely examined period of British history, this pre-war drama is...

Amazing Grace Movie Review

Amazing Grace Movie Review

For a film with all the stylistic panache of a BBC period yawner and all...

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Movie Review

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Movie Review

In the middle of the lousy Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Patrick Swayze makes an appearance...

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