Women Talking

I have been anticipating the wide release of Women Talking for months and I was so happy to finally have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night!  It is incredibly powerful with performances that should be generating a lot more awards buzz.  Many women in an isolated Mennonite community have been drugged and raped but, despite waking up bruised and bleeding, they are not believed until there are eyewitnesses.  All of the men go to town to post bail for those accused and the women are admonished to forgive them or else face being exiled from the community and excommunicated from their faith.  While the men are gone the women take a vote about whether they will do nothing, stay and fight, or leave the colony but there is no clear winner.  A group of women, including Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), Mejal (Michelle McLeod), Agata (Judith Ivey), Greta (Sheila McCarthy), and an older member of the congregation known as "Scarface" (Frances McDormand) who disagrees with the process, are elected to come to a decision and they meet in the hayloft of a barn to debate the merits of each option.  A sympathetic schoolteacher named August (Ben Whishaw) is asked to join them to record the minutes because the women are illiterate.  The themes are incredibly compelling, especially the notion of forgiveness.  There is a phenomenal scene during which Greta realizes that her teachings may have encouraged the violence against her daughters and granddaughters because forgiveness can sometimes be misconstrued as permission.  The performances are outstanding because my attention never wavered from the dialogue-heavy narrative.  Foy and Buckley have the showier roles, portraying fiery women who eventually have their opinions challenged, but Mara gives a beautiful performance as a woman trying to reconcile their decision with their faith.  I have heard many complaints about the color grading but, in my opinion, the gray tones reflect the despair the women have been living with and serve to keep the time and place ambiguous.  Finally, I loved the score by Hildur Gudnadottir because it is tense during the flashbacks that hint at the violence but haunting during scenes showing the children the women are fighting to protect at play.  I was very moved by this sensitive depiction of a heavy subject and I highly recommend it.