If I told you a movie set in an isolated religious group would lay out a compelling case for how to tackle and dissect the patriarchy, you’d probably say it’s a Sarah Polley movie…and you’d be right.
**Screened as part of the 58th annual Chicago International Film Festival**
Content Warning: This review will briefly discuss the sexual assaults at the core of the movie, but will not go into detail. One of our amazing editors and writer’s Taryn Belle has agreed to give a recap and review with spoilers for potential audience members who need to have a heads up on what takes place throughout the film.
Based on the book Women Talking by Canadian writer Miriam Toews, this film adaptation – written and directed by Sarah Polley – drops us into the middle of a crucial, decision-making session by a group of women who have been assaulted by men within their religious enclave. With the colony’s women split on what to do after taking a vote, two prominent matriarchal families are nominated to make the final decision, whether the group should do nothing, stay and fight, or leave to start a new life without the men.
An All-Star Ensemble Cast
When you hear that Frances McDormand is producing and will star in a film with Sarah Polley, you sort of get your hopes up of what that will look like. I want to pop that bubble for you quickly: she’s in two key scenes and that’s about it. So if you were hoping for more, that’s all your going to get. However, that doesn’t distract from the impact that the entire crew creates together.
Ona (played by Rooney Mara), stands out as one of the level-headed moderators along side the her mother, older matriarch Agata (played by Judith Ivey), allowing the fire and intensity to be carried and wielded primarily by Salome (played by Claire Foy) and to a smaller extent by Mariche (played by Jessie Buckley). As fantastic as Foy and Buckley’s performances are (and they are great, we’ll dive into this more in a second), it would be a mistake to look at their anger and anguish in a performance vacuum. These 4 are playing off of each other incredibly well, which enables Foy to exhibit an unbridled rage for what’s happened to them which in concert with the goals that Mara and Ivey’s characters have for resolution and processing.
Buckley’s character explores the widest range of emotions and problems throughout the entire film and ends up in a very different place by the conclusion. I found myself actively conflicted on how they were attacking or cutting down their fellow participants, hoping they would eventually relent or ease up, and as more plot points come out, it becomes increasingly obvious why that’s not happening. To be clear, Mariche isn’t the adversary, it’s definitely the men in this story (and we’ll get to that also). However, how she processes her trauma takes a toll on everyone around her. It forces you to deal with the fact that abuser can skew the perspective of the abused, making them fearful of fighting back or even defending the actions of their abuser.
What Would You Do?
The variety of expressions in this movie drive home how complicated the dismantling and pushing back against patriarchal systems truly is. Yes, the inciting incident in the film is a interpersonal problem, but the fact that a society can allow that to happen and not be disgusted or take corrective actions against it speaks to these systemic issues.
There’s several scenes that highlight this problem and highlight how each voter in the group’s personal stances are incompatible or don’t neatly account for every issue. For example, when they work out some of the pros and cons of each decision, the young boys who would be left behind becomes a key point of contention. If they leave them behind with the men who are already a product of this toxic system, aren’t they just dooming them to repeat the mistakes their society has already allowed? But if they take them, what dangers are they potentially bringing with them? How old is too old or too young to have been indoctrinated or tainted by this problematic system?
Whether you agree with the answers that the movie decides on, the exercise of working through these moral quandaries is where the film really shines. Especially as our modern day culture wrestles with the after-effects of the #MeToo movement, this movie works as a fantastic companion piece to help continue those difficulty conversations, while maintaining a healthy balance and perspective on the structural and systemic challenges.
The Difficulty of Dialogue
No matter how adept you become as a screenwriter or director, there’s always a fight with how to pace and deliver dialogue on-screen. How much of what needs to be said must be verbalized? Do the dynamics and/or framing of the screen communicate some of your ideas without the need to write 3 extra lines for a character to say? If you don’t say enough, will the audience pick up enough from context clues? And probably the biggest issue of all, even if you manage all of that, is what we’re seeing on-screen interesting enough in conjunction with tightly written dialogue?
| CREDIT: MICHAEL GIBSON/ORION
If there’s one spot that Polley excels and rarely falters at, it is with this central challenge. Having the ensemble primarily talk in the barn could have been detrimental (or come off as though it were being staged for the theater and not a movie screen), but Polley keeps the conversation lively with the right amount of flashbacks or well-timed character revelations throughout. When the script is working it’s best, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy are chewing up their scenes and bouncing off the ensemble incredibly well. Thankfully, the only times this doesn’t work happens in small doses (closer to the beginning of the film) and keeps the film from falling into long, expositional traps that would slow it down.
With so many Hollywood films ballooning to nearly 3 hour or longer runtimes, this film’s 1 hour 44 minute duration, combined with Polley’s execution and great editing by duo Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo, keeps the affair brisk and impactful with very little lulls.
A Simple, But Powerful Score
Hildur Guðnadóttir, who most recently was the composer on Todd Phillip’s Joker and Sicario: Day of the Soldado, creates a central guitar theme that permeates throughout the entire film. Despite the grim proceedings, this track keeps many moments from feeling too heavy or gives the audience a chance to breathe in-between some of the heavier scenes. However, it’s the artful reuse of this theme in the final scene that shows how much it’s energy has been preparing us for the group’s final decision. When they start to execute their plan and the theme is reaches it’s pinnacle, many in my screening (including myself) started to cry at this moment as it was a perfect combination of what we had been watching, feeling, and gave us a chance to cheer for them, release whatever we had pent up over the course of the film.
Conclusion
With a tightly woven script, a stellar ensemble cast, and Sarah Polley’s even handed direction, Women Talking avoids the potential pitfalls when dealing with a dialogue heavy script and delivers a masterclass on how to tackle difficult subject matter and present ideas on how to move forward from assault and trauma into empowerment and self-determination.
Score: 9.5 out of 10
Update: Women Talking won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Oscars.