Women Talking

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source: Women Talking

What a shock - a film called "Women Talking", with Rooney Mara, is a soporific bore. In an isolated, deeply religious, old-world agricultural colony (in 2010 for some reason) all the women & girls are regularly drugged & brutally raped (and denied education btw) by the men - until a potential breaking point is reached, when the lead women (inc Mara, Jessie Buckley, Sara Foy (poor) & others (tho not Frances McDormand whose cameo hardly features)) must debate staying or going (as token man Ben Whishaw takes minutes). Writer / director Sarah Polley no doubt had noble intent, but it dies under the relentlessly pretentious, laughably bad dialogue. Awful. A turd. Flush.

When I saw the trailer and the plot of the movie, I was intrigued. Also, the subject is interesting. Honestly, I didn't like the movie at all. Let me state this beforehand. I don't know how good and gripping the book is but I don't care. But the movie is very bad. First of all, my opinion is not positive about Mennonite, Amish, etc. A bigoted religious people who reject such technology. I always argue that religions are a bad thing. It's not mentioned in the movie, but takes place in the book in 2010. Can you believe it ? 2010 ! What happened to them is very bad. They still believe in religious, spiritual things, but one day they catch a man. They saw the truth. On top of that, they had stay, fight and leave options. The result is the same (tie) for all 3 options. They argued in the barn. I was expecting clever dialogs. Look, I can say two very good and excellent films, all of which are dialogues and conversations. "12 Angry Men" and "The Man from the Earth". Look at these two movies and watch this movie. It was very boring, I wanted to turn it off, but I don't have a habit of closing movies halfway, even if it's boring, I watch it to the end. The arguments were not wise. First of all, even after what they went through and what happened to them, they still talk nonsense about religion and going to heaven. Something like that. The conversations are as follows: Let's stay and fight. No, if we stay, I'll be the murderer. Lets go. No, if we go, we are covard. Then god won't let us into heaven. Lets go. Let's stay. Let's fight. No, let's stay. Men can come too. Early children under the age of 12 will also come with us. No, they won't. No, they will come. What if there is a 13 year old ? Men over 13 are stupid and dangerous. No, men can come too. Let's stay, this is our home. Maybe we can forgive men. No, they are all bad. No, it's not all bad. No, let's go. Blah blah blah. Conclusion ? Nothing. Leaving ? It's a boring movie of 1 hour and 44 minutes. I can say that the acting is very good and the cast is very good. The footage wasn't bad either. But in a movie that depends on dialogues and conversations, I would expect more intelligent dialogues. It's a pity. Everything depends on religion. It would have been better if they had studied, searched their religion, what they believed (or rather what they were persuaded to believe), had been educated and left the community. But, I don't know. The movie pissed me off. There are some good things in the movie. Except for the script. Also, this movie was nominated for two Oscars. One of them is in the best movie category. Are you kidding me ?

You go to bed then wake up bruised, bloody, quite groggy and confused; you know instantly, that your body's been abused, your mind cannot conceive, all the torment and the grief, but you're not the only one, that's being used. So the women of the colony convene, to discuss the implications of what's been, carry on like there's no wrong, stay and fight which might prolong, or leave this place, put barriers between. The conversations, confrontations ebb and flow, the picture of what's taken place is shown, anguish, misery and despair, amongst a culture built on prayer, where the men have their own rules, their manifesto. It's a wonderful piece of filmmaking that engages from the outset with great dialogue, a disturbing story, and an empowering conclusion - with outstanding performances throughout.

There's two movies about sexual assault this year-this and the Harvey Weinstein based 'she said'. I found 'she Said' To be like watching 'spotlight' all over again. It didn't add anything new to the conversation. This does because of its nuances. It's easy to make a 'sexual assault bad' movie but this movie grapples within a religious faith based community where things aren't so black and white. I loved how all the characters represented all points of view-doing something about it, say nothing, etc. I love all the main cast-Claire foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara. Really great film done subtly on an important subject.

It's an ensemble drama set within 24 hours in 2010 in an unknown location. It follows the conversation of three generations of women discussing how to respond to the sexual abuse and rape experienced by many women in the colony over the previous years. The conversation occurs while the colony's men are away in the city, raising bail for colony men arrested for sexual crimes. Eight women participate in most of the discussion. Two grandmother matriarchs are Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy). The next generation includes Ona (Rooney Mara), an unmarried woman pregnant with a child resulting from rape. Mariche (Jessie Buckley) is married to a very abusive husband. Salome (Clare Foy) is Ona's younger married sister who is very angry over the abuse of her young daughter. Some girls from the next generation provide comments and some narration to the film. Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand), another matriarch, leaves the discussion early. Since the women are illiterate (only boys go to school), they ask the schoolteacher, August (Ben Whishaw), to record their discussion. August, who had left the colony with his mother, was university-educated but was allowed to return to teach school. The film shows no sexual violence but does show some results of the violence. The only adult male face seen throughout is that of August. The women discuss three options: staying and forgiving the perpetrators, staying and fighting the perpetrators, or leaving with all the children under a certain age. They must make a quick decision because one of the men is returning from the city in the evening. The decision taken by the group is a very "Mennonite" one. I had a lot of ambivalence going into the film. I didn't like the novel when I read it several years ago. The author closely tied the story to accounts of crimes in one of Bolivia's very conservative Mennonite groups. However, the novel's nuanced dialogue was far beyond illiterate Mennonite women without education who could not even read a map. And a university-educated August would never be allowed back to teach in such a conservative colony. Sarah Polley extracts the story from Mennonite specificity (the film never mentions the word and doesn't mention "Mennonite" last names). Polley uses very subdued colors in the filming, reinforcing the conservative impression. Although the movie's setting still looks Mennonite, its greater abstraction allowed me to focus on the issues being discussed--rage, forced ignorance, the necessity of faith and how to reconcile this faith with what happened, how best to embody their pacifist ethic, etc. The discussion is wide-ranging and doesn't provide easy and ready solutions. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, and Jessie Buckley are excellent as they express contrasting and shifting perspectives. "Women Talking" probably needs to be seen multiple times to get all the layers. The Mennonite context sells the movie, but for me, it only made sense to push that representation to the rear. I wish critics would focus on it less. The film's ending unfolds a little too slowly once their decision has been made.

The fact that the movie is set in 2010 and is based on a true story is not easy to believe. The way things unfold, one would think it is at least in the 50s at the latest for the most part. But the way some cults work, and how people fall for them and spend generations in them is a sad truth of our world. Even though it can be technically called a chamber piece, it doesn't feel like one. There's so much in writing and directing that adds novelty to the story which is not exactly something groundbreaking. There are little moments throughout the film that makes the situation more weird and real at the same time that most films don't do.