Women Are Talking, and Making Movies About Women Talking (Review)

I saw this movie alone at the Kinema in the Woods, an old cinema in a neighbouring village to my hometown. When the movie ended, I ventured from the venue into the woods. I had an hour until my bus home and I just walked. Usually, I would listen to music or a podcast but this time I kept to the path and walked in silence. At the end of the movie, a list is made of 'things that are good.' It is dominated by natural wonders like the sun and the stars, and after hearing them listed off one by one, it seemed right for me to take time to be with those things.

There aren't quite words to describe how I felt after seeing the film. Rage? Peace? Pride? Sadness? Empowerment? Maybe all of the above, a collision of different feelings that whilst walking through those woods felt entirely feminine. Maybe that sounds overly whimsical and cliché, but it is true to how I felt in the moment.

Watching a film focused on women, on their words, their pain, and their experience, seemed to have more of an effect on me than I realised when looking at the screen. It was only after I left that I felt its significance and power over me, and that I truly appreciated it. These are women who know their value is higher than the treatment they have been subjected to, women who are angry, women who are tired, women who are distraught. You feel for these women, you are these women. There were several times I felt chills all over my body not only at the phenomenal delivery of dialogue but at the truth behind it, a truth all too familiar and common.

The screenplay is wonderful and mostly avoids drilling home the message too explicitly, leaving gaps for audiences to fill in and trusting their intelligence to do so. The narrative is gripping, made more apparent in the fact that their dilemma is not a simple one. The women's grappling with faith, guilt, and each other was conveyed brilliantly. You root for them even if you're not entirely sure what it is that you are rooting for them to do.

The performances are standout; however, I will say that some of the monologues did feel like Oscar-bait. They were effective, nonetheless, and I think the nominations this film received are well deserved. Whilst it failed to takeaway any of the big categories, it is, in my opinion, one of the best adapted screenplay winners the Oscars has ever seen.

We need more movies talking about women, made by women.

I would recommend this film to anyone and encourage any woman who watches it to embrace the feelings of anger, pride, and fear that may arise from its viewing.

Image credit: Mama's Geeky