A potential Oscar contender presents disturbing ‘Me Too’ issues in an historical setting. In theatres Dec. 2
By Dwight Casimere
Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley has a steady hand on the pulse of America’s hour of discontent, especially as it concerns women’s issues in her latest film, Women Talking.
Set in a fictional Canadian Mennonite community (the original book authored by Miriam Toews takes place in Bolivia), the women decide they’ve had enough of years of being drugged, raped and beaten by hordes of abusive men who descend upon them at night.
At the outset of the film, the perpetrators have been hauled off to jail and the rest of the men have gone to bail them out. In the void, the women begin an impassioned discussion over what to do next. The battle lines become quickly drawn. Should the men be forgiven as an act of faith and things allowed to continue as before, or should they uproot from hearth and home and strike out for a bold, yet uncertain future. Consequences be damned!
Most of the film involves emotional confrontations between the women who meet in a hayloft to take a vote on their fate. The morally tinged debate reminded this reviewer of Francis Poulenc’s modern opera Dialogue of the Carmelites, in which a group of Carmelite nuns are faced with the guillotine less they renounce their faith in the closing days of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
Rather than a test of faith, Women Talking posits a choice between subjugation under male domination and survival.
The cast is a Who’s Who of outstanding acting. Led by Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Clara Foy (The Crown), Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) and Frances McDormand (Nomadland) and Judith Ivey, it is a film that stands alone as a testament to the exquisite power of female stage artistry.
“We did a lot of retakes,” actress Kate Hallet said of the filming process. “We spent three days just shooting eleven pages of script. It was more like we were doing something for the stage than for a film.”
The sole male character in the film is Ben Whishaw (This is Going to Hurt) as August Epp, who acts as the sounding board for the women’s ambitious plan. His vulnerabilities come to the surface as it is revealed that he is teetering on the verge of suicide due to his own conflicted values.
If there isn’t an Oscar in the offing for this film, then something is horribly amiss.
The stakes are high in Women Talking and director Polley’s pacing only serves to heighten the sense of urgency. All of the actresses involved in the film are either Oscar winners or Oscar nominated and it shows in the final product on the screen. To say that Women Talking is a gripping and important film is an understatement. Executive Produced by Brad Pitt, Lyn Lucibello Brancatella and Emily Jade Foley with exceptional cinematography by Luc Montpellier, editing by John Buchan and Jason Knight, Production Design by Peter Cosco and Music by Hildur Guonadottir. From Orion Pictures and Plan B Entertainment. In theatres Dec. 2.
