Review: 'Women Talking' is a shattering drama about women isolated by religion and liberated by faith
Few movies tell their stories as economically and as emotionally as “Women Talking,” writer-director Sarah Polley’s quietly powerful drama about women confronting the terrors of their life, the pain of their religion and the joys of their faith.
Polley’s beautifully spare script, adapted from Miriam Toews’ novel, doesn’t tell us at first when the events in this movie happen. Among the women of this Mennonite community, cut off from the outside world, it seemingly could be any time.
What we’re told at the outset is that many of the women have woken up over the past few years in pain, bruised all over their bodies, and frequently bleeding from their private areas. Some of them find out later that they became pregnant. When the women reported this to the menfolk, the men said the women had imagined it, or were being punished for not having sufficient faith.
Then the truth comes out, that one of the men had drugged the women and raped them. The male leaders of this community go into town to bail out the perpetrator, and give the women orders when the men get back: Forgive the rapist, or be banished from the community that has been the only life they or their children have known.
The women, clad in their neck-to-floor prairie dresses, gather in the hayloft and vote for their three options: Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave the community. Here’s where the “talking” of the title happens, as the women weigh their vote.
Salome (Claire Foy) is the most militantly angry of the group, while Mariche (Jessie Buckley), after years of abuse from her husband, is cynical that anything can change. Salome’s unmarried sister Ona (Rooney Mara), who is pregnant after being raped, is more thoughtful, as she works to understand how men who are the pillars of their faith could commit such horrific acts.
Among the older women, Greta (Sheila McCarthy), Mariche’s mother, seeks to find answers from the metaphor provided by her carriage horses, Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand) boycotts the whole discussion, and Agata (Judith Ivey), Salome and Ona’s mother, advises the women to find forgiveness — if not for the men, than for themselves that they could be put in this situation.
The women’s words are taken down by the one man left behind on the compound, the shy schoolteacher August Epp (Ben Whishaw), who went away from the colony for his education but reluctantly came back. Ona, who has known August for years, asks August to transcribe the women’s meeting, so there will be a record of their thoughts — as conflicted as they are.
Polley haș transformed so gracefully from child actor to sensitive filmmaker that it feels completely proper that she should take on this difficult material. The “action” is entirely in the dialogue, as the women work to talk through the ramifications of their decision. At its heart, the discussion is about faith, which is one’s relationship with God — as opposed to religion, defined here as a construct of men, designed to maintain power and control in God’s name.
Picking a “best” performance out of this ensemble is impossible, as each of the women support each other, and it’s the accumulated power of their portrayals that makes the movie so compelling. (Perhaps this is why awards groups such as the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild — unable to choose among Mara, Foy, Buckley, Ivey or McCarthy — have not nominated any of them individually. The Screen Actors Guild did nominate the movie for best ensemble, their equivalent of a Best Picture category.)
Together, the women of “Women Talking” pull at our hearts, make us understand their pain, and allow us to marvel at their grace and stamina to carry on in spite of what they have endured. These women onscreen — and the one, Polley, behind the camera — also give us enough to think about, and talk about, long after the film is over.
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‘Women Talking’
★★★★
Opens Friday, January 13, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content including sexual assault, bloody images, and some strong language. Running time: 104 minutes.