A One Mann’s Movies review of “Women Talking” (2023).
Amongst the awards feature films, there’s a lot of overlap between the BAFTA nominations and the Oscar nominations. But one notable difference is the snub given by the BAFTAs to “Women Talking”: not a single nomination. At the Oscars, the film has fared better, with nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film. But the movie was still frozen out of the acting awards, which feels like a crime.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s 2010. In a remote Mennonite commune all of the women have been subject to being drugged and raped each night. When a suspect is caught, the men disappear to the local town to seek bail. While they are gone, the women must decide whether to do nothing, fight back or leave.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC: “Sexual violence references, sexual threat, domestic abuse”). This must have been an interesting one to classify. While you don’t see any of the actual rapes (they all happen before the film starts) there is a strong element of sexual violence that pervades the film: and not just rape, but paedophilia and incest. I think the BBFC got this classification correct.
Talent:
Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw.
Directed by: Sarah Polley.
Written by: Sarah Polley (Based on the book by Miriam Toews).
Twitter Handle: #Women_Talking.
Trying to decide what’s best. August (Ben Wishaw), Ona (Rooney Mara) and the angry Salome (Claire Foy). (Source: Universal Pictures International)
“Women Talking” Review:
Positives:
- The film title says exactly what it says on the can. (Mostly) women talking, in the loft of a barn, for most of the running time. But the quality of the acting on show is bloody brilliant, particularly from Claire Foy, Rooney Mara and the wonderful Jessie Buckley. I think Buckley is the best acting talent that the UK has produced in many years. She is utterly absorbing in her role of the battered wife, fearful but never letting on to the womens’ plans.
- The story is slight, but skillfully scripted so that I was never bored. We cover topics including anger, hate, forgiveness, religious belief, love and trans-gender politics: a heady mix. The nomination for Adapted Screenplay Oscar is well made.
- There’s a wonderful ambiguity to the time period and the setting that keeps the film nicely ‘other-worldly’. The film might be considered timeless until a van (wonderfully trumpeting the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”!) asks everyone to come out of their houses to be counted for the 2010 census. (A pretty hopeless process, I observed, since nobody did!). And whereas you assume that this is some Amish-like community in Pennsylviania, suddenly August (Ben Wishaw) is explaining how to navigate via the Southern Cross! The film starts with the words “What follows is an act of female imagination”. But in reality, the book’s author was a Canadian Mennonite living in a remote Canadian community,. The events, however, were bases on the horrific true story of 2005 to 2009 offences at a commune in Bolivia (hence the timeframe and Southen Hemisphere link). Further details are in the article here.
- The music by Hildur Guðnadóttir is wonderful. I must listen again to the soundtrack standalone. It seems a crime that the soundtrack wasn’t itself nominated for BAFTAs and Oscars.
Negatives:
- I really enjoyed it, but I can see many would view this as being way too slow for them. A bit like “Aftersun“, very little actually happens during the movie apart from ‘women talking’! At one point, one of the young girls declares “this is very, very boring” (a brave line to include) and I can see a proportion of the audience agreeing with her!
- Similarly, I loved the rousing ending (particularly with its accompanying music score), but even that will likely be a “so what?” moment for many viewers. And they will wish the women had chosen an alternative, more action oriented, option!
Triggers
Given the subject matter, this will obviously be triggering for any women that have suffered violence at the hands of men, or any form of sexual abuse as a child. None of this violence is actually shown, but the mental and physical aspects of the aftermath of the abuse is.
Summary Thoughts on “Women Talking”:
The lack of acting attention for this one at the BAFTAs and Oscars is almost as shocking as the crimes featured in the movie. I always remember as a child when my dad moved an old boiler in our house. It was home to a large family of rodents and, when disturbed, mice in their dozens fled across the floor. Our cat, who was in the room just turned this way and that and never caught a single one! In a similar way, I wonder if Foy, Mara, Buckley and McDormand were a bit like those mice, with the Academy being the cat. The attitude was, “if we can’t decide between these actors, we’re not going to nominate anyone”!
But although containing shocking subject matter, I found this a really absorbing watch
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Trailer for “Women Talking”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0mFhMqDCE .
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