Certificate: 15 (sexual violence references, sexual threat, domestic abuse). Running Time: 104 mins. UK Distributor: Universal Pictures
WHO’S IN IT?
Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, Emily Mitchell, Kira Guloien, Shayla Brown, August Winter
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Sarah Polley (director, writer), Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand (producers), Hildur Guðnadóttir (composer), Luc Montpellier (cinematographer), Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo (editors)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A group of Mennonite women meet to discuss their response to a wave of abuse in their commune…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON WOMEN TALKING?
Of the many films put forward for consideration this Oscar season, Women Talking has perhaps seen the most significant decline in its contender status. The moment it debuted at film festivals back in September, many were calling Sarah Polley’s thoughtful and disturbingly timely adaptation of Miriam Toews’ novel of the same name to be the one to beat for the ultimate Best Picture prize, with at least one member of its outstanding ensemble cast a sure frontrunner for an acting trophy. However, its chances soon diminished once other contenders like The Fabelmans and The Banshees of Inisherin (as well as ones from earlier in the year like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Top Gun: Maverick) entered the race, and along with an underwhelming box office performance and a somewhat muted reception with certain audiences, the film already felt like it had come and gone before Oscar voting even got underway. Now, it’s heading into Hollywood’s biggest night with a measly two nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, which are certainly achievements in themselves, but for a movie that was once considered to be the ultimate frontrunner, it’s still a disappointing result.
Of course, a film shouldn’t be defined by its awards campaign, whether it is entirely successful or not, but I feel it’s interesting to bring it up just to note how differently the film is being treated now compared to when I first saw this film, back in October during the BFI London Film Festival. Back then, anticipation was high with this film, and for a lot of people (myself included) it did not disappoint – but now, with its newfound underdog status fully certified, I found myself liking it a lot more than I did previously, perhaps because there’s now less pressure for it to live up to expectations, but mostly because it really is a rather astonishing film to absorb.
The plot of the film is based on a real-life case where the men of a secluded Mennonite community were found to be drugging and raping the local women and girls during the night, with some waking up with bruises, trauma, and even pregnancies. The rest of the film, as it points out very early on, is “an act of female imagination”: when the rapists are arrested, and the remaining men travel outside to post their bail, the women hold a vote to determine what their next course of action shall be. The three options are: forgive the men and do nothing, which is removed from the equation almost immediately; stay and fight against the patriarchal order that enabled the crimes to take place; or leave and start anew in a new community. When the results show a tie between the latter two options, a small group of women – Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), Agata (Judith Ivey), Greta (Sheila McCarthy), Mejal (Michelle McLeod), Autje (Kate Hallett) and Nietje (Liv McNeil) – meet in a barn to come to an ultimate decision, with male schoolteacher August (Ben Whishaw) jotting down the minutes since none of the women have been taught to read or write. The majority of Women Talking takes place during this meeting, where the pros and cons of both options are weighed, detailed, and argued in considerable detail, until eventually the clear choice emerges for all the women in this community.
It is very much a debate movie, one that goes for a risky “tell, don’t show” approach which can be fatal for a medium where visuals are everything, especially if the subject being discussed isn’t worthy of being projected onto a screen. However, Sarah Polley’s screenplay has a powerful mix of passion and emotion that makes a lot of the long-winded dialogue scenes feel invigorating and even euphoric, which I noticed a lot more during this second screening where I could really pay attention to the statements made without thinking about how the rest of the film was presented. One thing I also picked up on this time round was how surprisingly funny it is: you wouldn’t think that a movie with such devastating subject matter would find the time to make light of certain things, but again Polley has a way of finding such relief in unexpected places, whether it’s a passing comment or a facial reaction or a sudden shift of focus to a story about a character’s two horses. The humour helps the situation, and its characters, feel much more identifiable and remove the sense of dryness from what is predominantly a film where serious discussions are being made.
So much has already been said about how fantastic this cast is – there isn’t a weak performance among the lot, with Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley being the two MVPs in my opinion – that the fact that I haven’t even mentioned Frances McDormand (also one of the film’s producers) popping up in a small role is probably only now apparent to you. Everyone here delivers a memorable and captivating turn that, once more looking at the film’s disappointingly light Oscar count, makes it feel so much more wrong that next to none of them have barely been recognised for their efforts. The same goes for Luc Montpellier’s cinematography, which I remember being quite muted in tone and colour during my last screening, but here the colours felt much more apparent in a subtler sense, allowing me to see it for the quietly beautiful visual treat that it is. The cinematography, along with Polley’s carefully composed direction, can also be quite sweeping in places, lending the film a muted epic quality which an atmospheric guitar-led score by Hildur Guðnadóttir livens with its soothing presence.
Even for a film that I originally really liked in the first place, I was a little surprised by how much more I appreciated Women Talking on the second viewing. While it’s a shame that it hasn’t been as widely recognised as it perhaps could have been, that shouldn’t take away from its fierce power of finding the humanity and the beauty amidst dismal circumstances, which Polley and her immensely talented cast and crew must not be ignored for.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Women Talking is a powerfully executed debate movie that approaches the dark subject matter with fervent humanity, which writer-director Sarah Polley accomplishes with the incomparable assistant of her exceptional ensemble cast and crew who collectively make this a quietly epic tale of devastation and hope.
