It’s easy to be swept along by the positive emotion and engaging performances in Pride (trailer), including its stirring climactic music (oddly recalling the heart-swelling “Do you hear the people sing?” from Les Mis, another losing battle against implacable authority). The story is based on the extraordinary outreach of London’s gay community to striking Welch miners and their families in 1984.

Going with the flow, you may feel something more was accomplished by this effort, but in fact Margaret Thatcher’s intransigent government broke the strike after a hellish year, and the gays didn’t quite know it yet, but they were staring into the dark pit of AIDS. Perhaps successfully reaching across a cultural divide is sufficient cause for celebration in these polarized times. Pride without the prejudice.

Setting aside the larger context, it’s altogether a feel-good movie, and I felt very good any time Dominic West was on screen. The entire Pride cast is strong, including stalwarts Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, baby-faced Ben Schnetzer as the real-life Mark Ashton, George MacKay, and Jessica Gunning as Siân James.

Rotten Tomatoes critics rating 94%, audience rating 93%.