With a title like "Talking Women," the fourth feature from fearless actress-turned-director Sarah Polley makes it clear that it will be one of those rare films that can pass the Bechdel Test. That barometer poses three seemingly easy criteria to meet: (1) The film must have at least two women (2) talking to each other (3) about something other than a man. It's amazing how many movies flop.
Even Polley's film, which consists of women talking for most of its 97 minutes, is a tricky exception, since most of the conversation, an urgent meeting between the wives, mothers and daughters of an ultra-conservative religious colony, refers to men. But even then, there's no denying that "Talking Women" isn't like any movie you've seen before, which is exactly what you'd want from the director of 2012's surprisingly personal and groundbreaking meta-documentary "Stories We Tell." Another decade. Later, Polley returns with another audacious thought experiment, this one inspired by a horrific sexual abuse conspiracy uncovered within a Mennonite community a decade ago.
Director: Sarah PolleyWriters: Sarah Polley, Miriam ToewsStars:Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley
In that gruesome true crime, it was revealed that seven men had been drugging their neighbors with animal tranquilizers and raping them in their sleep, blaming the rapes, which numbered more than 100, on supernatural forces. A few years ago, Canadian writer Miriam Toews, who had grown up in a Mennonite community, took that premise and turned it into a novel, focused not on the crimes but on the consequences. Her book reads almost like science fiction (Margaret Atwood was a fan, quoted on her cover), but finds its basis in human nature.
Self-described as "an act of the female imagination," "Talking Women" is now a great movie, as the Hollywood hype goes, though in this case, the word "important" certainly applies: the very existence of a movie. that's a big deal, as is the fact that so many of its creators are women, from producers Frances McDormand and Dede Gardner to writer-director Polley and the ensemble, all incredible talents, performing together for the first time. Most of the film takes place in a haystack, where eight women have gathered, an impromptu council charged with deciding how to deal with the situation. They have three options: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.
That's more options than the village elders offered them. When news of the rapes broke, young mother Mariche (Jessie Buckley) grabbed a scythe and attacked the culprits. Only then were the police called, not out of concern for the women, as might be expected, but to protect the men. Here, as in so many communities throughout time, men make the rules, relying on religion as a means of social control. Why are the husbands and parents of the victims not outraged by what happened? That is not addressed. Rather, they have given their wives and daughters an ultimatum: the women have two days to forgive their attackers, or else leave the colony and by doing so, forfeit their chance to enter the kingdom of heaven. What would you do?
These women start out by voting, ushering in democracy into a system where, as expectant mother Ona (Rooney Mara) puts it, "all your life, it didn't matter what you thought." Ona is unmarried and pregnant from one of these rapes, dehumanizing assaults that Polley has the good sense not to show, though the bruised and bloody aftermath is no less disturbing. Now that the truth is out, Ona refuses to keep her thoughts to herself. The same goes for all the women who participate in this impromptu council, from respected matriarchs Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy) to their respective daughters, Salome and Mejal. Good luck keeping them all in order.
At first, the discussion features representatives from three clans, but the most severe and interesting, Scarface Janz (McDormand), drops out of the discussion early on. She represents the “women who do nothing”, those who voted to forgive and be saved, while the remaining eight want their children to be safe. They know that's not possible if they agree to the elders' terms, so they talk, weighing the various pros and cons as August (Ben Whishaw), the college-educated and thus relatively enlightened school teacher , it takes minutes. Only August is literate, and though he has loved Ona since childhood, he chooses to be an ally to her rather than part of the problem.