Women Talking, 2022.
Written & Directed by Sarah Polley
Starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy.
SYNOPSIS:
In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith. Based on the novel by Miriam Toews.
Sarah Polley has had a long and varied career as both an actor and director, and she returns with her first directorial effort since 2012’s documentary Stories We Tell with an adaptation of Miriam Toews 2018 novel Women Talking. The film has earned rave reviews on the Festival circuit to date ahead of it playing at the London Film Festival and boasts an incredible ensemble cast led by Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand, with early awards buzz around Foy and Buckley especially.
Women Talking deals with an isolated religious community in rural America in the early 2010s, where the women have to decide whether to stay and face the actions of the men within their group and the outside or to leave and start better lives for themselves. The vast majority of the narrative consists of discussions eight of the women have about their circumstances and differing perspectives they have on the reasons to leave and to stay, with minutes taken by Ben Whishaw’s August, a teacher in their colony.
With a cast of this calibre and the performance-based story, of course much of the responsibility for the film lies with its cast and they deliver magnificently, feeding off one another and showing the ebbs and flows of the magnitude of their decision down to the most minute of details. Beyond the cast mentioned previously, Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey also do commendable work.
The differing mindset of the leads is fascinatingly portrayed, showing a ferocious anger at their predicament and how they have allowed themselves to be physically and psychologically abused by the men in their colony for so long. Claire Foy’s Salome feels like a pressure cooker waiting to explode and is certainly one of her strongest performances, showing her range as an actor being both restrained and furious within the span of a scene.
Jessie Buckley contrasts Foy’s Salome magnificently with differing reasons for why they should stay and accept their predicament, while causing more than a few laughs with the most minute of eye rolls and other facial gestures, showing her disagreement with the rest of the group.
Rooney Mara offers a far warmer presence as Ona, who seeks a better life for her unborn child in one of the key drives for the group to leave. Mara shares fine chemistry with Whishaw who is unrecognisable here from Paddington or Bond’s Q, showing a dexterity we have not fully seen from him in the past and giving August a tender and melancholic side to him.
Polley’s direction keeps the film afloat with a sharp script that skirts the line of repetition the film could easily fall into, with many variations on similar topics or themes. The grey colour grading and cinematography of Luc Montpellier offers the film a sullen feel to it, befitting its subject matter. This is however, far from a depressing outlook on the women’s predicament, laced with moments of levity and hope above all else that there can be a better life for these women and their families away from their colony.
Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is at times reminiscent of her sterling string led work on Joker but goes beyond this to hauntingly capture the women’s plight, evolving as it progresses incorporating guitars as well showing the shift in the women’s mindsets as their discussions shift.
Women Talking, might not be the most comfortable of films to watch but it feels like a timely and important one, focusing on issues that remain topical today, through the 19th century style colony. The production design, score and cinematography help elevate the film and make it one of the stand outs of the festival season but it is the performances that truly make it a cut above.
Foy, Buckley and Mara complement each other wonderfully, bringing moments of pathos and melancholy tinged with humour and optimism, showing the enduring power of the human spirit through the obstacles facing these women and their determination to overcome them.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Connor
