Women Talking: When Words are the Most Powerful Special Effect
By Thom Ernst
Rating: A
The talent packed into Women Talking plays well into the notion of filmmaking as a collaborative effort. But there would likely be minimum pushback were we to lay the lion's share of the praise at the feet of its director/screenwriter Sarah Polley.
This has been quite a year for Polley, with accolades likely to spill over into 2023. Her collection of essays, Run Towards the Danger, chronicles the pitfalls (and neglect) of being a child star, the struggle to learn how to breastfeed her newborn, and her decision to remain quiet about a sexual assault.
Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod and Jessie Buckley convene in Women Talking
Though not likely to have been intentional, Run Towards the Danger feels like a companion piece to Women Talking. It is a literary success well worth the read.
Polley bases Women Talking on author Miriam Toews' novel of the same name. Incidentally, Women Talking follows closely on director Michael McGowan's version of Toew's novel, All My Puny Sorrows—a less celebrated film but an equally compelling story.
The themes in Women Talking are serious. In it, the young women of a devout sect have been waking up in blood-soaked sheets, physically injured, and unquestionably assaulted. Explanations for these nighttime attacks are woven into a mythology of monsters, the type of rumours that keep children hiding under their blankets at night.
Polley (and undoubtedly Toews) is not interested in wasting time giving the rumours of monsters any credence or depiction. This is a story of confronting abuse and recognizing the patronizing fraternity promoting false information to maintain their emotional grip on those they ostensibly love, care for, and protect. There is no mystery here.
The men have temporarily left the commune, except for the movie's singular male character, August Ep (Ben Whishaw), who obediently and without judgment (nor comment) chronicles the women's conversation. An all-woman council uses this opportunity to vote on whether to go, or stay and fight.
As the title suggests, the conversation—heated, passive, cajoling, consoling—pulls the drama through the film. Qualifiers would likely designate Women Talking as an art-house film.
Still, words are action, and Polley sculpts those words as though they were three-dimensional set pieces ready to pop from the screen.
There is no need for IMAX or digitally enhanced timeframes: all the special effects are verbal. (However, though not in IMAX, I did see the film on an IMAX-sized screen and not a space felt wasted).
I'm not familiar enough with Toews' work—and not at all with Women Talking—to know how accurate Polley’s interpretation is. I accept the assessment from those who know the work and have an emotional investment in the story—including an endorsement from the author herself—that this adaptation is faithful to the original text.
Then there is the cast of wonders—an impossible-to-ignore lineup of notably talented women from both sides of the border. (British actor Ben Whishaw is the exception).
Given that Women Talking is an ensemble piece, it is not unlikely to home in on our favourites. It may come as a surprise, given the pedigree of performers like Frances McDormand, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, and Sheila McCarthy, that Michelle McLeod stands out for me.
McLeod's star began rising when she appeared as Irene in director Pat Mills' understated comedy, Don't Talk to Irene. McLeod owns every moment she's on screen, even when up against the imposing talents of her co-stars.
If McLeod is intimidated by the presence of those accomplished performers, it's well masked beneath her shimmers of agitation, an unspoken history of anger in the simple act of drawing a long drag from a cigarette.
McLeod plays Mejal, a somewhat progressive, if not rebellious, personality in what seems to be a strict religious order. McLeod’s Mejal defies assumption that might arise from her unassuming appearance as someone we might anticipate withdrawing to hide comfortably in the shadows.
Despite lacking the visual scope and timeline of Polley's earlier works like Take This Waltz, Away From Her, and Stories We Tell, Women Talking is her most accomplished film to date: An intimate portrayal of a group of people driven to the brink of rebellion lest they concede to defeat.
It is also a film that counters against any narrative that misleads a population to maintain control.
This is Polley's year, and she has earned it.
Women Talking is directed by Sarah Polley and stars Frances McDormand, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Elliot Page, Sheila McCarthy, Ben Wishaw, and Michelle McLeod. Women Talking is currently playing in select theatres.