Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Director: Sarah Polley
Quick Impressions:
My husband and I both loved Away From Her, but he loved it so much I wasn’t sure if that meant he’d stay with me forever, or leave me for Julie Christie that Oscar season. I’ve been excited to see this movie for quite a while, just because Sarah Polley co-wrote and directed it. In the summer, I kept reading her descriptions of the terrifying working conditions on the set of Baron Munchausen. (Somehow I read a couple of things, and then all the algorithms responded, “Oh you like reading about Sarah Polley in peril, do you?” I ended up accidentally reading so many articles about her traumatic Baron Munchausen experience. So I’ve been thinking about her in the back of my mind for months.)
This is quite a story. I now need to read the novel by Miriam Toews.
On the ride home, my husband said, “There was one moment that made me realize—wait! This is a cult. And that film was about so much more than the abuse of women. That was a critique of abuse of power, and an illustration of how keeping a society ignorant keeps them enslaved.”
I went into the film expecting the women to be talking about a rapist (or maybe a few rapists) being protected by the religious leaders (or being among the religious leaders) of the Mennonite community. The actual nature of these crimes astonished and horrified me. (Please don’t misunderstand. Rape and abuse of power are bad enough.) But good God! I expected a situation more like the one depicted in Doubt.
There’s no doubt of the crime here. The women are just trying to decide what they should do now. The film begins with a vote. Should they stay and do nothing (i.e. forgive), stay and fight, or leave.
I guess it would be a spoiler to say precisely what the men have done. But oh my God! My husband said, “Well, you know rape is about power not sex.” But if the victims are drugged and unconscious, why are some of them sustaining such barbarous injuries? Some victims are old women. One is a four-year-old girl. Any rape is a violent crime and a grave violation, but some of these victims are horribly maimed.
This is a gravely different situation than the one I imagined. Not only have these women been assaulted, but they’ve also been gaslit, told by the leaders of the community that they’ve been attacked by demons as punishment for their sins, or that they’ve hallucinated. I mean…I’m so confused. The women in this community are not given an education. None of them can read. They don’t know any history or where they live. They don’t even have a map. (Is this representative of Mennonite communities? That’s not the impression I’ve ever had.)
My husband said, “Well, it’s simple. They’re using religion to suppress the women. The women are taught they’ll go to Hell if they don’t forgive.” But what do the men believe? What are the men taught? Aren’t they also adherents of their religion? The women quote scripture. Where are the verses about giving old women tranquilizers and knocking their teeth out and saying the devil did it? In their own minds, what are these men doing? How do they see their actions as justified? What are their beliefs? Are the men just not religious? (That doesn’t make sense to me. If that’s the case, why don’t they just go live in the city?) I’m very confused about what in their own minds the offending men think they are doing.
The Good:
As you can see from my rant above, this movie is thought-provoking and engaging on multiple levels. It quickly highlighted a difference between my husband and me that we notice all the time. Although his parents are Christian, he did not go to church as a child. He wasn’t raised in the church at all. So for him, so many issues are simple. He bases his stances on logic. He thinks in a very secular way and doesn’t see all the complications and convolutions of thought that sometimes cloud issues if you’ve been raised going to church.
My husband is very much a person who just responds to things in a cursory manner. He and I agree on almost everything. But I always have to wander through this whole convoluted maze to explain my anguish and deliberation, and he’s just outside the maze, not understanding why there are obstacles making the path slower for some of us.
For him, this is clearly abuse of power.
That’s clear to me, too. I just want to understand what the men think they’re doing. Are they just Mennonites because they were born that way and lazy? Don’t they also believe their faith? So what justification do they think they have for this bizarre behavior? What are they doing in their minds? We keep hearing that the way the community is set up and the teachings of the community led to this behavior. What exactly have they been teaching the boys? What is the point of giving your grandma cow tranquilizers, knocking her teeth out, then telling her the devil did it? I know what I think you’re doing, but what do you think you’re doing? Do the men not believe in their religion at all? How are they justifying that to themselves? It’s quite bizarre, convoluted behavior. What satisfaction are they deriving from this? They must know it’s not God’s will they’re doing. And if they don’t believe in God, what’s the point of their lives? (If you didn’t believe in God, would you want to spend all that time laboring in the field? Why wouldn’t you go get a PS-5 and deliver pizzas? It seems so much easier.) (That’s a stupid thing for me to say. But what they’re doing is stupid, too. If they stopped and thought about it, self-reflected…)
The movie isn’t about that, though. It’s about the women deliberating a course of action in the barn, while the other men have left to raise bail for the accused men. (My husband and I were unclear about how many of the men were accused and how many other men there are who are not involved.)
The entire movie takes place in one day (with a few brief flashbacks) inside a barn.
It’s a deeply intriguing story, and it’s riveting to watch the deliberations as the women work toward a solution and August (local schoolmaster and former exile, played by Ben Whisaw) takes notes.
Several actresses give standout performances. I’m eager to say that I particularly liked Claire Foy as Salome. (A few years ago, I kept saying that I didn’t think she should get an Oscar nomination for First Man because I didn’t think the role gave her the opportunity to show enough range. And then she didn’t get nominated, and I felt bad. (It’s not like anyone knows or cares what I say, but I still felt so bad.)) In this role, her constant high intensity is appropriate. She’s immediately sympathetic, and the more we learn about her, the more and more I liked her character. I’m similar to her in some ways. If you hurt me, I’ll probably forgive you. If you hurt my child, I hope you enjoy being murdered.
Jessie Buckley is good as Mariche, too. I enjoyed watching her position and Salome’s position evolve as deliberation continued. Their colony’s leadership may be broken, but the women seem to have no problem working together to find the best solution and finding useful ways to change each other’s minds.
After seeing these performances, I’m kind of surprised neither Foy nor Buckley got an Oscar nomination.
Rooney Mara’s Ona is pretty compelling, too, but I feel so worried for her.
I thought, “In this situation, I would be Mejal (Michelle McLeod).” Everyone endures similar trauma, but not everyone reacts in the same way.
I enjoyed Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score. I also liked the age-appropriate behavior of the children.
Best Scene:
Most of the women get a showcased moment. Probably my favorite part is when Agata (Judith Ivey) uses her faith and the education she has received (in scripture) to come up with a solution. It’s nice to see that although the male leaders of the community have abused these women in the name of religion, they have not managed to take their faith from them. Also, she’s able to use the education she has to think of a solution to her problem that will satisfy her.
Best Scene Visually:
I reacted quite strongly to Greta’s teeth. This was some kind of turning point for me (maybe even a tipping point). Something happened to me when I saw what happened to her. (How did the leaders make sense of this event? Are they so stupid they believe their idiotic cover story? Or are they so vicious, they think it’s moral to knock out an old woman’s teeth? I don’t see another choice.) Greta (Sheila McCarthy) is my favorite character because I find her horse stories charming.
Best Action Sequence:
My husband was shocked when the guy taking the census drove through. He didn’t realize the story took place in the twenty-first century.
The Negatives:
My main problem is I want to know what the men are doing. (I mean, what is motivating them? How do the perpetrators conceive of the attacks? Are the other men also in the dark, believing this ridiculous story that the devil is going around raping everyone, or that the women are hallucinating these spiritual wounds that everyone else can also see? Surely not!)
That’s a problem with me, not the film. What the men are doing is not what the movie is about. It’s very honestly titled Women Talking. (I’m just curious, though.)
I’m also worried about what will happen to August. Was he abused himself? (That seems very likely.) Or was he, in the past when he was the type of young teen boy he describes, an abuser? (That seems less likely but not out of the question.)
And what exactly is going to become of these women? I can’t say more without spoilers, but I have some concerns based on the way the world works in 2010.
I wish Frances McDormand were in the movie more.
Overall:
This may sound a bit obvious, but Women Talking shows what women can accomplish in a single day if they start talking. If these women had stayed silent, imagine how much more abuse they might have endured. This is a well-acted, engaging, thought-provoking film. I’m glad it’s nominated for Best Picture.