Despite the seeming lack of visual flair, with a good script, even a film consisting entirely of people talking can be some of the most engrossing and thrilling cinema out there. It’s been shown time and again and now writer/director Sarah Polley (“Take This Waltz,” “Alias Grace”) has adapted Miriam Toews’s novel “Women Talking” into a thrilling and powerfully acted work of dialogue, sisterhood, and solidarity.
Set in 2010, the film follows a group of Mennonite women who discover that the men of their community have been using animal tranquilizers to drug and rape them in their sleep. After some of the men leave to bail out those arrested, the women decide to convene and discuss what to do: to stay and do nothing, to stay and fight back, or to leave.
Featuring a stacked ensemble cast with the likes of Jessie Buckley (“Chernobyl,” “i’m thinking of ending things”), Rooney Mara (“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” “Carol”), Claire Foy (“First Man,” “Unsane”), Ben Wishaw (“Paddington,” “Skyfall”), Frances McDormand (“Fargo,” “Nomadland”), and Sheila McCarthy (“The Umbrella Academy,” “Die Hard 2”) to just name a few, the film is at its most powerful and fascinating when it simply focuses on the internal strifes and differing values of these women. Yes, the title is literal, there is a lot of women talking. But it gives way to some truly powerhouse performances from virtually everyone involved. Buckley and Foy particularly absolutely steal the entire film, but don’t mistake singling them out for damning anyone else with faint praise.
Given the simplistic nature, the film’s usage of color and even its aspect ratio feel taught and purposeful. It’s washed out, but there’s still moments of stark beauty and color which, coupled with the claustrophobic framing, lends a kind of hidden beauty to the film. It shines through despite the circumstances around it, sometimes in spite of. It’s all set to a gorgeous score from composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker,” “Tár”) that, plain and simple, elevates material that was already fantastic to begin with.
It’s in the discussions where the most interesting aspects of the film lie. Bringing up the conflicting ideas of fighting and violence, the condemning of the men, and singling out certain others. The presence of Wishaw’s character, for example, has a lingering ode over the entire discussion. They need him to dictate as none of the women can write, but few of them actually want him there. These themes of masculinity and, to simplify it greatly, who “the good men are” are further explored with the character of Melvin, played by August Winter (“Mary Kills People,” “Between”), a member of the community who was raped and afterwards began to identify as a young male within the community.
There’s almost a privilege to the film that Polley expertly displays thanks to the intimacy of it all. Yes, this is a public forum for these women, but the shooting style and ferocity makes it feel as though we’re watching something secretive, that we possibly shouldn’t be seeing so openly. It lays the emotions bare. So often we see “talking” films made and criticized for being somewhat boring due to their dialogue heavy nature. But Polley expertly lets the acting take the center stage, letting the performances strengthen the already fantastic script to bolster the rest of the film.
Maybe it’s weird to say given that it is just a movie about women talking, but there is a kind of magic to watching it. Getting to peek behind such a monumental moment in these women’s lives, and it feels special. It feels mountainous by the end of things, accomplishing a lot but also giving the sense like you’re looking into almost a dream like state of happening.
“Women Talking” feels like a trick, a spell of a film. Yes, it consists entirely of standing around and talking, and yet it is somehow one of the most gorgeous looking and beautifully constructed films of the year, packed with stellar performances and a musical score that will transport you. There’s an ethereal nature to it all that makes it feel truly unlike any other film of its ilk and of this year. 5/5
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