This is not a beautiful or glamorous woman, but I’d have a thousand dinners with her before I’d so much as share a happy meal with Angelina Jolie. Hawkins has an intelligence and vitality that makes her absolutely fascinating.
In Made in Dagenham, which tells a true story, Hawkins plays Rita O’Grady. In 1968, O’Grady led the women of the Dagenham Ford plant on a strike for a revolutionary proposition: equal pay for equal work. It was something nobody else was even thinking about – most people just accepted that women should make less than men because, well, because that’s the way it had always been. The film takes O’Grady from just another happy worker to full-fledged labor leader, and it shows how she grew into the role while maintaining her decency and discovering her extraordinary ability to lead. Working with Albert Passingham (the brilliant Bob Hoskins), she carried her fight all the way to the top levels of British government and won. She won because she was right, but she also won because she realized she could.
Hawkins endows Rita O’Grady with all the traits of an outstanding leader: drive, vision, empathy, organizational skill, and the ability to make her case. She’s a pleasure to watch, and she transforms Made in Dagenham from just another earnest biopic to a bright, compelling, and wildly entertaining time at the movies. I loved Made in Dagenham, and I can’t wait to see what Hawkins does next.
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