Sarah Gavron and Abi Morgan‘s Suffragette, the Carey Mulligan-Meryl Streep-Helena Bonham Carter drama about the women’s right-to-vote movement in England, filmed last winter and is currently in post. With seven months remaining in the year, Indiewire‘s Kevin Jagernauth is wondering if the period project “will be completed in time for the fall festival circuit or if it’ll be held for next year.” Being ready for a Telluride/Venice/Toronto debut might be tough, but other significant films have managed much tighter schedules. There’s certainly time to prepare for an opening in October, November or December. It would be kind of dumb for Suffragette‘s producers to not labor mightily to open their film by 12.31, if for no other reason than to benefit from the usual award-season hoopla that is afforded any half-decent, serious-subject film released between Labor Day and New Year’s Eve.
…unless, of course, Suffragette ends up playing too much like a generic single-issue political struggle piece a la The Normal Heart, in which case it might be a better fit for HBO sometime next year.
And by the way, I didn’t feel that Mark Ruffalo‘s Normal Heart performance as Ned Weeks/Larry Kramer was overly strident at all. Okay, he was strident, yes, but he obviously had his reasons for being so and that makes all the difference. For me Ruffalo found the sadness and the vulnerability in every scene. His performance never felt anything but correctly measured and precise. He was playing the guy who saw clearly what was going on and what had to be done, and almost everyone around him was grappling with some form of denial. Being the only perceptive person in the room is enough to drive anyone crazy. I’ve been there and I know.
