Women Talking (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Sarah Polley needs to make more movies. Women Talking is exceptionally crafted with care and determination.
One of the best ensembles of this or any year. The cast of Women Talking speak profoundly and powerfully, with the multi-generational actors leaving a lasting impression.
Based on actual events, a fact that is harrowing in and of itself, Women Talking finds power in showing us the prospects of hope can exist even in the darkest of circumstances. In that regard, the film feels revelatory and inspiring.
NO
Largely confined to one setting, Women Talking is emblematic of a play and, as a result, could leave people wanting and expecting more.
Often reflects its title, which again could lead to people expecting that this should be something more than it is.
Carries a subdued color palette and understated tone and cadence. Some have described the film dull and boring.
OUR REVIEW
In a remote Mennonite community, circa 2010, eight women, representing multiple generations, convene in a barn for a very important meeting. They have recently realized they share a common experience, harrowing to discuss and gut wrenching to even imagine. The women have have been drugged with cow tranquilizer, raped by a core group of men in their village, only to have it blamed on forces outside of the men’s control. And it has been happening for years.
As vile and despicable as that all is, the premise of Women Talking is not entirely a work of fiction. Writer/director Sarah Polley may have adapted Mirian Toews’ best-selling 2018 novel of the same name into her new film, but a similar story occurred in 2009 within a Bolivian Mennonite community. In that instance, over 130 women had been violated by men. That story, along with Toews growing up as a Mennonite, brought together the “imagined response” Toews wrote about in her novel. Polley, a brilliant writer and storyteller, has created a film of stunning intensity and gripping power.
For some, Polley’s approach may not seem the most exciting, engaging, or inviting. Largely set in that barn, she focuses on the conversations, the debate, and divergent opinions which form around these women and their shared experiences. If one was to argue that Polley’s film works just as good, if not better as a stage play, I offer little opposition to that take.
The women are largely granted three concessions when they speak up about what has happened. The men have been removed from the community for 48 hours to allow the women to make a decision on what they choose to do. A de facto matriarch of the community, Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand), refuses to participate in the discussions, but helps orchestrate a vote for the women in the community. Three options are up for voting: 1) Staying and doing nothing; 2) Staying and fighting back; or 3), leave the community and set out to create a new home.
With two of the options tied, the women convene.
Polley finds agency for each character in the barn. She gives space for the different experiences the women bring to the conversation, taking form as agreements, counterpoints, or flat out disagreements. One man is present, August Epp (Ben Whishaw), brought in by the women to be a notetaker. With this being a patriarchal society, the women are illiterate and August is granted a chance to return because of his kind nature, empathy, and compassion for what the women are experiencing. With his mother, and in turn her family, excommunicated from the village for challenging its leaders, he is deemed a safe presence with one singular task at hand.
Defiance is found within, anger is threaded through every conversation and younger teenage girls, not physical victims per se, but scarred from the attacks on their fellow residents, are present to hear and observe everything.
Interestingly, the woman who fought back, Mariche (Jessie Buckley), is the one most resistant to leaving. Soft-spoken Ona (Rooney Mara), pregnant from one of the attacks, has reconciled the necessity of being a mother with the larger issues at play. We come to understand that the abuse is generational, illustrated by the pain and anguish depicted in stories shared by mothers to adult daughters. Salome (Claire Foy) is something of a troublemaker in this context - she has the temerity to bring outside antibiotics into the colony to treat an ailing child. The elder women (Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy) share stories and wisdom to try to contextualize the decisions which need to be made.
The conversations prove riveting. The unflinching truths transcend the barn. Women everywhere, in any number of environments, settings, and experiences, can share in the trauma, depression, and violation these women are reckoning to understand.
Polley’s screenplay straddles a fine line between exploitation, repetitiveness, and hitting on-the-nose. Her talent as a storyteller steers her around nearly all of the potential trapdoors this story can present to a less-skilled artist. This is as focused a work as we have seen on screen in 2022. Polley is clear-minded, both in awe and inspired by her characters, and she trusts the audience to hear them, see them, and process the levels and layers of grief and shame they are coming to terms with.
The acting is truly superb, crackling with characters who leap off the page and make you believe their stories are real and as truth. Selecting one or two as standouts is hard to do, as this is truly a film where each actor feeds off the other. Polley is a master at cadence and the film has an almost lyrical tempo which is amplified by a brilliant, aching, moving score from Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir.
Perhaps more could be shown. Perhaps more could be added to the story.
As it exists, Women Talking may strike some as singular, or as others have described, “literally just women talking.” That’s an unfortunate response, largely coming from one particular voice of the film critic community. There is truly so much more to be found within these words and this dialogue. There’s truth in every word, real-life experiences laid bare. When one of the teenage girls has a panic attack, it is hard to not get caught up in the fear, anger, and uncertainty pouring into her reaction to the stress of what is happening around her.
Women Talking is a movie that is hard to forget. Even with the resolutions the women are debating, the rationale and justifications that have been discussed and torn apart, Polley makes clear that no matter what satisfaction can be achieved by coming together for a common purpose, the pain, torment, and destructive impact of rape, assault, and violation never goes away. With new beginnings, scars endure. And when given the power to stand up and find a collective voice, hesitancy and fear understandably remains.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand, Sheila McCarthy, Kate Hallet, August Winter, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, Emily Mitchell
Director: Sarah Polley
Written by: Sarah Polley
Based on the book “Women Talking”, written by Miriam Toews
Release Date: December 23, 2022
Orion Pictures/United Artists Releasing