Reviewer David Leninhawk returns with a look at Women Talking, nominated for for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
I feel really bad giving this film a negative review on International Working Women’s Day, but I can’t pretend this film worked for me. I haven’t read the novel this film is based on, and I don’t know enough about Mennonite communities to know if the people in them talk like this, but this film feels so stilted, artificial, and stage play-like with its flat, philosophical dialogue. Despite taking place within a small Mennonite community in 2010, this film isn’t really about religion (or cults) as this is meant to be a metaphor in microcosm of women existing in patriarchal systems in general. The problem I had is that this metaphor is pretty much just flat text and not even subtext, and by wearing its intentions on its sleeve so openly and front-facing the film comes across as incredibly pretentious, so convinced of its self-importance that it threatens to brand you a bad person if you disagree with its alleged brilliance. I agree with the politics and general meaning behind the film, but it goes about delivering its message like the Oscar bait version of the 2019 Black Christmas.
I acknowledge that part of the film not working for me is personal: my general antipathy for religion and faith. Early on, this film attempts to ground you in the difficulty of these women’s decision by communicating that they are devout and absolutely believe that disobeying the men of their community will preclude them from entry into Heaven, and it’s a dilemma I’m incapable of empathizing with. Much like my inability to care about the struggles of Andrew Garfield’s Jesuit priest character in Silence, if the film wants me to sympathize with characters who might be willing to stay in a community that horrendously abuses them because they are brainwashed into thinking it is the right thing to do for their religion, it’s going to be a non-starter for me, especially when the film really isn’t about religion or the dangers and evils of religious belief. That stuff is really just a backdrop to examine global patriarchy in general, with religion merely being the tool wielded by evil men in this particular microcosm.
The plot here is that the women of this community discover that they are being drugged and raped on a regular basis by some of the men. They had previously been placated with religious explanations that it was ghosts or demons and whatnot, until one of the men is caught and he rats out the other men involved. After a couple of the men are arrested, the remainder of the men in the community seek to bail them out. The women know they will be required to forgive the rapists and let things slide, otherwise they will be excommunicated and forced to leave. Thus, the events of the film take place over an approximately 48 hour period where some of the women debate whether to forgive/do nothing, stay and fight for a more egalitarian community, or leave for their safety. These are women who have very little knowledge of the outside world and are not even taught to read, so the prospect of leaving is scary as it is without any type of religious threats.
To director Sarah Polley’s credit, the film is consistently visually interesting despite most of it just being a group of women deliberating in a barn. It’s shot in a widescreen aspect ratio and color timed to a gradient of sepia tone that I almost wondered why the film wasn’t just shot in B&W. Polley chooses good shots to keep things from feeling as stage-like as they could, even if her screenplay and dialogue are very stilted and performative. I don’t know if these characters are even educated enough to speak in such philosophical ways considering they are denied any sort of formal education, and the result is that the characters feel less like people and more like cyphers for different strands of female reactions toward their place in a patriarchal system. I’m a little astounded that this film is the frontrunner for Best Adapted Screenplay when the script is by far the weakest aspect of this movie.
The acting is hindered by the overly formal and wooden dialogue, but otherwise the performances are solid. It’s probably not good that in this film about women the most human performance is from the one non-scumbag male character, August (Ben Whishaw), who is tasked with recording the minutes to the women’s barn meeting as they deliberate their course of action. He’s the only character that comes close to approaching feeling like a real human as opposed to an avatar spouting pronouncements for their argument. Claire Foy as Salome, the strongest woman with the most agency and forward momentum toward emancipation, at least imbues her dialogue with the most emotion present. Jessie Buckley as the reactionary tradwife of the bunch functions as her opposite and does the next best job, though the film punishes her for her reactionary outlook by having her husband beat her offscreen, causing her to eventually join the others as they lean toward the leaving option. Rooney Mara’s Ona is the most optimistic and childlike of the main adult female characters, and while the film sets her up to be the closest thing to a main character in this ensemble, the film doesn’t quite know what to do with her, other than to have August pine for her.
This whole thing would have likely worked better on the stage in a live play than on film. Film is close to the actors and a more literal medium, where as the artifice of the stage and needed suspension of disbelieve with the minimal sets and props would likely be more forgiving for the flat dialogue and obvious metaphors. There are a few sequences that work very well here that are more movie like, such as a scene where a census taker drives through the community blasting “Daydream Beliver”, but otherwise there’s not much in this film that wouldn’t be better suited to off-Broadway as opposed to the big screen.
So yeah, this just didn’t work for me. I appreciate the message and the general politics behind the film, but the delivery vehicle is too stiff and unsubtle to make for a good film.
Guest writer David Leninhawk sees a LOT of movies. Check out Letterboxd for more reviews.