'Made in Dagenham' is right on the money

Based on the true story of a British female workforce that fought for equal pay in 1968, "Made in Dagenham" cheats the facts but with good intentions. Its central character, a reluctant firebrand named Rita O'Grady, didn't exist; she's a composite of various Dagenhamers who made the headlines. But every story needs a hero, or a heroine, and while Rita is a fiction, she also is a very real everywoman.

Played with working-class sass by Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky"), Rita begins the film as one of 187 women who stitch upholstery in a Ford Motor Co. warehouse that is so poorly air-conditioned they work in their skivvies. "Man!" goes the warning call when one approaches; usually it's good old union rep Albert (Bob Hoskins), averting his eyes while trying to rally the troops. Albert chooses Rita to help him fight the factory, the corrupt union and his own patriarchal party bosses.

In William Ivory's smart, trenchant script, equal pay is never an abstract ideal but a matter of tangible worth. In nearly every scene, the personal becomes political. Rita's husband (Daniel Mays) supports her as far as his male pride will allow; one Ford executive's trophy wife (Rosamund Pike) begins siding with the enemy; real-life Labour secretary Barbara Castle (Miranda Richardson, terrific) tries to remain a politician first, a woman second.

Livened up by coarse British humor and anchored by a level-headed view of history, "Made in Dagenham" avoids easy sentiment and heart-tugging. The movie would rather you hear its message than stand up and cheer.