Film of the week: a solid drama that could have been much better

Film review: Peterloo Peterloo is a solid costume drama that shines a light on a significant piece of social and economic history. But it does need a bit of trimming and sharper focus.

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Peterloo: solid, but in need of a trim
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Peterloo

Directed by Mike LeighCertificate 12A

Director Mike Leigh is known for kitchen-sink dramas, such as Secrets and Lies, and for genial period pieces such as Mr Turner. The two collide in Peterloo, his account of the 1819 massacre. Waterloo veteran Joseph (David Moorst) returns home to his family in Oldham to a world of high unemployment and falling wages. The protectionist Corn Laws have pushed up the price of food, making it harder to make ends meet. With the authorities cracking down on dissent, reformers are divided between those pushing for an armed uprising and those, like orator Henry Hunt (Rory Kinnear), who want peaceful change.

Leigh does a good job of detailing the various economic and political issues that brought matters to a head at Peterloo. Chief among them was the recession that immediately followed the Napoleonic Wars, creating unemployment and driving down the wages of those lucky enough to find work. The film also points out that, while industrialisation raised overall living standards, it also reduced the status of skilled workers. The corrupt political establishment, who were willing to give huge sums to the Duke of Wellington, but were opposed to making any political concessions, also played a big part in the discontent.

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Another theme is the divide between the upper middle-class reformers, represented by Hunt and the staff of the Manchester Observer, and mill-workers who were either starving or living in poverty. Although Leigh ultimately endorses Hunt's non-violent approach, he is not afraid to emphasise Hunt's aloof, snobbish and self-important side. He shows that the reformers lived in a world far removed from the ordinary person, not averse to keeping the servants in their place even while campaigning for the downtrodden. Similarly, the outrage of the organisers at their arrest seems slightly petulant set against the large number of dead and wounded protesters.

The problem with Peterloo is that there are just so many individual stories that, despite the two-and-a-half-hour running time, there is no single character who commands our attention. There are a lot of intriguing plot threads that end up being left hanging. Some of the performances are so over-the-top that they end up being a distraction from the plot. We see the magistrates sentencing someone to hanging for stealing a coat, and later urging soldiers to attack unarmed protestors, for example it's hardly necessary to have them gurn and rub their hands with glee like pantomime villains.

Overall, Peterloo is a solid costume drama that shines a light on a significant piece of social and economic history. With a bit of trimming and some more focus on one or two key characters, it could have been a much better film.

Dr Matthew Partridge

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri