It's 1920's New Jersey. It's the age of wonderous new materials and social justice movements. Bessie (Joey King) and Josephine Cavallo are two of the Radium Girls. They apply glowing radium paint onto watch dials for American Radium. The process requires them licking the brush before applying the paint. Jo gets sick. Their oldest sister Mary is dead. Bessie is told that the Radium is poisoning them.
It's an important historical story. As a movie, it runs into some slow sections and some melodramatic moments. Despite that, it's a compelling story. I do wonder if they could have used the real girls' names and stories. It's almost a hundred years ago. It also needs to set up the scale of the problem. I couldn't tell how many women worked in that industry. The drama is limited, but the melodrama is there. All in all, the historical story is compelling enough to keep this movie interesting enough.
