Ever since the huge success of “The Full Monty” in 1997, every few years we’ve seen a British movie come along that attempts to ape its story of plucky-working-class-underdogs-who-take-up-an-unusual-pastime-of-some-kind. Sometimes, with the likes of “Billy Elliot,” it’s proven successful, but for the most part this curious sub-genre turns out half-baked films like “Grow Your Own,” “Kinky Boots” and “Calendar Girls.”
Nigel Cole, the director of the latter, a particularly popular example of the genre, is, as we reported a few months back, going back to the well for “Made in Dagenham,” which follows the unlikely leaders of a 1968 strike at the Ford plant in Dagenham in support of equal pay for women. At least, he’s assembled a tremendous cast: the wonderful Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) takes the lead role, with Jaime Winstone and Andrea Riseborough among her colleagues at the plant, Bob Hoskins as their union steward, the great Daniel Mays as Hawkins’ husband, Rosamund Pike as the sympathetic upper-class wife of their boss, and Miranda Richardson as legendary left-wing politician Barbara Castle.
It all looks pleasant enough, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that we’ve seen it several times before, particularly with a bland helmer like Cole in charge. Still we’re big fans of pretty much every actor on screen, so the performances alone should make it worth a rental. If we can get over the disquieting sight of Richard Schiff (Toby from “The West Wing”) without a beard. That’s just weird. It hits theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on October 1st; there’s no word on a U.S. release date yet.