Suffragette
Focus Features | Release Date: October 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchSarah Bryan MillerNov 5, 2015
Morgan’s writing is occasionally pedestrian, but the sweep of the story, the performances and Gavron’s vision make up for it. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 3, 2015
In the best picture of 2015, Carey Mulligan is the stoic, long-suffering sweatshop worker radicalized into action. Read full review
85
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 21, 2015
The women’s movements are routinely and depressingly ignored by the movies. But Suffragette isn’t just a dutiful corrective, a lid to cover up a gap, but a necessarily distressing exploration of how much a political vanguard will push and endure to set things right — and how fiercely and eagerly a society that’s resistant to change will punish them for it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 22, 2015
Suffragette is an admirably modest movie. It does not quite have the grandeur and force of “Selma,” and the script has a few too many glowingly emotive speeches. The final turns of the tale are suspenseful, but also a bit frantic. But it is also stirring and cleareyed — the best kind of history lesson. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 12, 2015
It’s written, shot and acted with a hot-blooded urgency that reminds you the struggle it depicts is an ongoing one – and which shakes up this most well-behaved of genres with a surge of civil disobedience. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeSep 6, 2015
Writer Abi Morgan ('Shame', 'The Iron Lady') and director Sarah Gavron's ('Brick Lane') tough, raw, bleak-looking film makes the suffragettes' dilemma feel immediate and real. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleNov 5, 2015
Some of the developments feel a bit predictable — shot in the dull hues of gray that match Maud’s life, Suffragette occasionally turns hard truths into platitudes — but the story is inspiring, buoyed by a fine cast, a pointed, important examination of the price paid for a shot at equality. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 29, 2015
By avoiding the usual cliches of the freedom saga, Suffragette finds its way to its own, specific integrity. It’s a movie that’s easier to respect than love, but it is something to respect. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 29, 2015
If we now take a woman's right to vote and to hold public office for granted, Suffragette reminds us that it wasn't that long ago when things were different. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Julia CooperOct 29, 2015
Some will criticize the director’s choice to recount a collective struggle through just one individual, but Mulligan’s performance, coupled with a solid script by Abi Morgan, shows us just how much is at stake when a woman decides to wage war. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 29, 2015
The movie, which is both formulaic and powerful, dramatizes a paradigm shift that has been largely smoothed over by history (which is hardly the same as saying all the battles have been won). Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 29, 2015
The torment that Maud is put through is devastating, but Suffragette, as a film, often robs itself of its own emotional power. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 29, 2015
Suffragette is an absorbing, ultimately moving portrait of thwarted ideals that rings all too true today. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 22, 2015
It’s a shame that, despite some excellent performances, this urgent, well-intentioned film feels so conventional and stolid. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 22, 2015
What makes Suffragette a relevant rabble-rouser, besides Mulligan's fierce, affecting performance, is the way it won't bow to the kind of Hollywood formula that tsk-tsks about how bad it was then — only to wrap everything up with a comfy banner that says, "You've come a long way, baby." Read full review
75
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianOct 21, 2015
The film's episodes and attitudes register with searing immediacy while feeling true to their time period. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 21, 2015
The physical abuse and emotional anguish sometimes borders on overkill, but the final outcome is overwhelming. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 6, 2015
Director Sarah Gavron's celebratory chronicle would inspire strong reactions even if it wasn't much of a movie, but the filmmaker compliments her powerful tale with the immediacy of her filmmaking and performances on the same level. It's an unabashed message-driven story that imbues the past with modern power. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberSep 6, 2015
The surprise of Suffragette is how much anger and urgency it contains, and how much new material it unearths. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 6, 2015
Suffragette’s strength lies in the fact that, even though some of the characters and events depicted seem archetypal, and they’re certainly composites, they turn out to be more than that. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerNov 5, 2015
With such actors at work and with locations including a first-time use of the Houses of Parliament, Suffragette should look and be a richer experience than it is. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 23, 2015
Gavron’s conventional approach to the material compares unfavorably to the newsreels and stills of the actual suffragettes that close out the film. The harsh reality comes through in that footage in a way that the film as a whole only approaches in bits and pieces. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 30, 2015
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Suffragette is that it too obviously wants to be an important movie. The self-consciousness of this desire is evident. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 29, 2015
It’s an admirable film, though not a particularly memorable one. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 26, 2015
Suffragette is slick and efficient, but also diffuse and formless; it’ll pass the time but it fails to engage. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 22, 2015
Though ably acted and indisputably on the side of the angels, Suffragette as directed by Sarah Gavron is more dead-on earnest and schematic than it needs to be. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 22, 2015
The movie does well to shine a light on the venerable struggle, but its beam is narrow, and often pallid. Read full review
60
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 6, 2015
Director Sarah Gavron does well to galvanize her story with a degree of urgency: the result of swift, assured camerawork and a brilliantly understated performance by Carey Mulligan. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangSep 6, 2015
Carey Mulligan gives an affecting, skillfully modulated performance that lends a certain coherence to this assemblage of real-life incidents, composite characters, noble sentiments, stirring speeches and impeccable production values — all marshaled in service of a picture whose politics prove rather more commendable than its artistry. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 4, 2015
Despite the vividness of the movement and the philosophical underpinnings of the cause and its tactical shifts, Suffragette unfolds in a sequentially predictable manner. Read full review
50
TimeJohn AndersonNov 3, 2015
Earnest but costumey drama. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyOct 23, 2015
Suffragette feels like a documentary in its visuals, but at the same time drowns in subjectivity (Maud's face in repeated closeup). Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 21, 2015
Despite a top-shelf cast and strong subject matter, Suffragette feels like the product of limitations. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 21, 2015
Despite Mulligan bringing her A-game, the film falls short of its potential. Read full review
50
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 15, 2015
All the actresses do their best with the material, but only Mulligan truly transcends its limitations. Read full review
50
The PlaylistChris WillmanSep 6, 2015
If only Carey Mulligan had been inspired to protest for the right to a better script for Suffragette, an overly schematic look at the struggle for women’s voting rights in 1910s Britain that almost gets by on the strength of a great slow burn of a lead performance. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 23, 2015
Perhaps the most startling aspect of Suffragette, which for better or worse is a standard-issue historical drama, well constructed but not especially capacious or original, is its depiction of how far female activists were willing to go in order to prove that they could stand alongside men. Read full review
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