We go to the movies to be entertained. That is why popcorn films that have flashy action set-pieces and CGI spectacle make hundreds of millions of dollars, and a drama about important and poignant social issues will barely make a splash at the box office. This has caused, in recent years, a divide between the Academy Awards and the average moviegoer who sees them as being out of touch because the big-budget blockbuster isn’t being represented. Add to that the growing movement of our youth who don’t even bother going to movies anymore and exist on a steady diet of TikTok, YouTube, and other short-format entertainment. Important films struggle anymore to find an audience in theaters but can sometimes find life on a streaming platform if they are entertaining enough. Still, there are those of us who still take the Academy Awards seriously and seek out those films that receive the nominations, knowing that there is power in many of them, power to move us and make us feel strongly.
When I first watched Women Talking in the winter of 2022/23, I knew nothing about what I was in for. It hadn’t shown in my small town but was streaming at the time the Oscar nominations were announced. I came into it blind and, while I was moved by what I saw, I didn’t want to see it again; it was just too painful a subject. When I embarked on this plan to write about every Best Picture nominated film, I knew one day I would have to revisit this one, and I was dreading it. This film was amazing, but the subject matter was so distasteful that I felt I couldn’t sit through it a second time. Yet when I loaded up the film today and began to rewatch it, I discovered that, despite the dark subject, there is a light that shines in it that has the power to uplift the spirit. You have to go through the darkness to get to that light but it is there.
What we are essentially seeing is a film in response to the #MeToo movement. In recent years, there has been a major upswing in women coming forward and speaking up about the sexual assault they had been facing for years, often to major celebrities or other public figures. The biggest names to come out of this were Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and even Donald Trump. The news was flooded with articles on the various trials and the sentencing of these men who used their positions of power to sexually assault women and intimidate them into not speaking out about it. When all of this began to be released to the public, it empowered more women to speak up. What we didn’t really see, though there had to be some, were the women who didn’t want to speak up, didn’t push to get revenge on their assailants, or chose to hide their pain and allow their attackers to get away with it. The film, Women Talking, covers all of these different viewpoints and provides a talking space for the various arguments for each side.
The film opens with a young woman awakening alone in her bed and discovering bruises and wounds on her hips and upper thighs, indications that she has been raped. This is a precursor to everything this film is going to be about: the drugging and raping of women. The year is 2010, but this could just as easily have been the 1800s with the setting, and the story would remain roughly the same. The setting is an isolated Mennonite colony, and the women have discovered that the men have been using livestock tranquilizers to subdue and rape the women, keeping the women believing that their injuries are coming from demons from beyond. But when one of the men is caught in the act and arrested, alongside several others that he named to the police, the rest of the men, minus the schoolteacher, August (Ben Whishaw), leave for town to raise money for bail, leaving the women behind.
The women, with August serving as scribe, discuss how to deal with this new knowledge. All their lives they have been taught that to leave the colony would leave them without salvation as God will not be able to find them unless they were among the faith. Still, many feel they cannot simply ignore what has been being done to them. They hold a plebiscite to decide whether to stay and forgive the men, stay and fight for their equality in the colony, or leave and take their young children with them. The men are expected back in two days, so time is not on their side.
The vote is hardly unanimous, with the highest tally tied between leaving and staying to fight. The women elect eleven of their own to come to the final decision, and they gather in the hayloft to discuss it further. At this time, Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand) grows disillusioned with the discussion, having voted to stay and forgive the men, and leaves, taking her daughter Anna and granddaughter Helena with her. Salome (Claire Foy), returning from gathering antibiotics to treat her assaulted four-year-old daughter, is adamant about staying and fighting, an opinion shared by Mejal (Michelle McLeod). Ona (Rooney Mara), who is pregnant from rape, also suggests staying, believing they should fight and create a new set of rules for the colony, giving the women equality. Others feel that to fight would be against their beliefs in passivity, and the only viable option is to leave. They feel that to offer forgiveness is tantamount to giving permission to the men to continue their assaults. August, who is considered by the other men to be a failed man, offers some insights into their plans, and is in love with Ona, feels that his best contribution is to educate the young men before they grow up just like their fathers.
Religious conviction is a hard thing to argue against. Atheists have tried for hundreds of years to convince the religious that there is no God, and yet the devout still exist. Faith in a higher power gives people hope in an ever-pessimistic world. But in a situation like the one depicted in this film, faith can be a hindrance, especially when that faith is being used as a way to hold someone hostage. These women have been led to believe that if they leave the colony, they cannot make it to heaven. This is a prime example of exercising unrighteous dominion over someone. It’s also using a position of power to commit atrocities. This could just as easily be a Catholic priest molesting an altar boy, a movie producer forcing an actress into sexual acts to avoid being blacklisted, or any number of other situations.
It’s of particular note that this film elects not to show us any of the men. The males of this colony are never seen with the exception of August, who is considered a loss after failing to run a farm, and the young boys who are just starting to become young men. The closest we get to any of the men in the colony is Klaus, Mariche’s (Jessie Buckley) abusive alcoholic husband. He returns from town early to raise more money for bail and beats her and their daughter into confessing the women’s plans. None of this happens on-screen, so the atrocities of the men are largely off-screen. Just like the rapes, we see the effects rather than the acts themselves.
This is a hard position to put a person into. It’s also a difficult subject to depict and still maintain an audience. By talking about the assaults and not seeing them, it allows us to better understand the various opinions of the women. The best scenes are when arguments sway the women to change their vote because we can understand both sides of that argument while still having a strong opinion of our own. Director and screenwriter Sarah Polley has tackled a deeply emotional topic and done such a wonderful job of breaking down the emotional, personal, and logical reasons a person could be sexually assaulted and not want to speak up. It makes for a compelling drama that will make you angry that such things still happen in this world. That this is based on a novel that was in turn based on a real-world event just makes it all the more moving.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Frances McDormand
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley (won)
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Release Date: December 23, 2022
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rated PG-13
Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand
Directed By: Sarah Polley
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