Film Number 11 of 2023
The film: Women Talking
The Cinema: Village Cinemas, The Rivoli
Stars: 5
This film is up for the Best Film Oscar.
This should win the Best Film Oscar. It won't. But it should.
I've seen some excellent cinema over the last few weeks. The Whale. The Banshees of Inisherin. This matches both of these films for greatness.
It's an important film. It's a relevant film. In its own way, it's horrific.
And it's utterly compelling and thoroughly brilliant.
The premise is quite simple really. The women of a religious community in America, set around 2010 have been left by the men of the community, who are trying to get one of their brethren out of prison for raping other members of the community. The men are complicit in hiding the attacks.
The women left behind have to vote as whether to stay and forgive the men, stay and fight, or leave.
The women cannot read or write. Still, they vote.
The ballot comes to a tie between staying and fighting or leaving.
A group of women affected by the actions of the men sit in a barn to discuss what to do to come to a decision on their plight. The schoolteacher, August (Ben Whishaw) has remained behind to take an account of the women's conversation.
What ensues is an hour and 45 minutes of electric cinema as the women work through their situation. There's Mariche (Jessie Buckley) who's all for staying for the sake of her children. Ona (Rooney Mara) who's carrying her rapist's child but wants to leave for everybody's sake. And there's Salome (Claire Foy) who's halfway in between. There are older women, such as Janz (Frances McDormand, in a small part), who can't see why they should go, save they be cast out of heaven at their time. Judith Ivey plays Agata, Salome's mother, who feels guilty for allowing her daughter to marry her brute of a husband. And most poignant, is Greta (Sheila McCarthy) who is still suffering the fate of the younger women. The women know they are chattel, good for nothing but breeding and working. You get a sucker punch when you see Salome carry her daughter 2 days to the nearest clinic to get her daughter antibiotics.
Sarah Polley is a Canadian national treasure. She both directed and helped to adapt the screenplay, making the adaption from Mirian Toews book of the same name. Polley is for an Oscar for the latter. The film has also got a nod for the best film, as I said before. Both nods are well deserved.
What I loved about this - it's an intelligent film. Not much is spelled out, most things are implied. The film is tense - oh so tense. You really can't say where this will go.
And you have to feel for the women of the community, none of whom read or write, or have any idea about the world outside.
It's a good testament for educating women. And how religion, and faith, and lead people to make some pretty daft decisions.
Hunt this one out. More people should see this. It's a very timely, and timeless film, with pitch perfect performances and an unwavering moral compass.
I'll be thinking about this film for days. It is truly excellent.
It's a pity this one won't have the audiences. It's amazing.
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