Women Talking
Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. A group of women in an isolated Mennonite community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith after a string of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men. This film is based on the novel, "Women Talking" by Canadian writer Miriam Toews. Toews describes her novel as "a reaction through fiction" to the true-life events that took place on the Manitoba Colony, a remote Mennonite community in Bolivia.
- Released: 2022-12-02
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Drama
- Stars: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, August Winter, Frances McDormand, Kira Guloien, Shayla Brown, Eli Ham, Lochlan Ray Miller, Vivien Endicott Douglas, Nathaniel McParland, Marcus Craig, Will Bowes, Emily Drake
- Director: Sarah Polley
Comments
- claudeaarion - 7 June 2024
Dissapointed
I thought the 20-30 minute dialogue in the barn was pretty good and was the best part in the movie.
Sadly, that was it, and it turned into a giant borefest that severely lacks substance and repeats the same questions being asked while so many questions as a viewer stay unanswered.
To be fair, the title is what you get, but they failed to write an engaging story that shows you their journey instead of just having them say the same stuff in the same place throughout the whole movie.
That's why, for the life of me, I cannot understand why this has won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay because the original is way more exciting.
The ending is nice but feels so flat to me, and it all just makes you feel like you have wasted so much time and leaves you unsatisfied. - meinwonderland - 12 February 2024
Dull Talk
Inspired by real events the movie tells the story of a group of women planning to leave the religious colony in which they live after a series of abuses.
The problem with this film is that it feels like a bad play, even though it's based on a novel. Almost all of the movie takes place in the barn, and dialogue abounds and action is nowhere to be seen (the title is the most honest I can think of). Circular and stalled dialogue in itself. If they had shown more of the power dynamics inside the colony, it'd have helped the pacing and the narrative. When I watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), which it is based on a play, it was entertaining and had notable performances. In Women Talking, despite having good actresses, that never happens, and the outcome ends up being a tedious one where those sepia aesthetics don't help at all. Good story, awfully told.
