Women Talking Movie Review

Women Talking (2022)

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Written by: Sarah Polley (screenplay by), Miriam Toews (based upon the book by)
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality and their faith.

Verdict
It's a somber movie that considers how one should respond after an attack. The movie discusses how they should react, and while that conversation is engrossing, there's even more happening between the lines. Their action and reaction will have repercussions. Part of this is how to respond to keep yourself and your children safe and how to react in a way that supports their faith, but also this is a society that is designed to serve men. Women aren't even educated. The crimes that happened are a result of this societal structure. Arguments for fighting and leaving both have valid points. How do you fight a society that is designed to marginalize you? If you leave how do you support yourself when you've never been given an education? There is no easy answer, but this movie thoughtfully considers the best response.
Watch It.

Review
This movie jumps right into the plot. There's no development or introduction, just the issue. A terrible crime has occurred within this Mennonite community. Women and female children were incapacitated and raped during the night. This was a sustained occurrence. They were told it was ghosts or Satan when they woke up bruised. When the movie stated that, I wondered how many men were complicit in this. The entire community would be aware of what's happening, but the movie isn't worried about what's happening outside of the conversation. I appreciate the movie's focus, but when you read between the lines there's a lot happening and it's not good.

Rooney Mara plays Ona

This is a patriarchal community where women aren't even taught to read and write. Now they debate on whether to stay and fight or leave. If you want to fight, Ona (Rooney Mara) asks for what are they fighting? What changes do they want to occur? There's a hierarchy in many places, but in this community it's taken to an extreme. Women are second class, persecuted, and subjugated.

This is also a religious community. The women wonder why God let this happen. How do you reconcile what you feel with your beliefs of forgiveness? In this context forgiveness seems like a pass. We don't know, but I would guess in this society men don't ask women for forgiveness of anything. It seems like there would be a double standard. Women are trained to forgive, but you can't keep forgiving if the other side or your partner isn't actively trying to improve. With these ideals of forgiveness they were taught, what would it mean for their security if they forgive the men that attacked them and must then live with them? Forgiveness without action from the other side is subjugation.

Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey play Mariche, Ona, Agata

There's a lot unsaid that makes the discussion engrossing as reactions and reasons shift as they try to decide an appropriate response for such a betrayal and for the crimes against them. This isn't simply leaving. They are in a society that's designed to control women and treat them as objects. Just as a woman rarely leaves an abusive husband, many times she is a stay at home mother with no income or means to leave. This is a similar situation. If the women stay and fight, everyone won't fight. The fewer that fight the less chance of success or even survival they will have. 

The movie doesn't get into this, but there were a number of men committing these crimes. How many knew it was happening? How many tried to cover it up? The reason the men are away during this movie is so that they can post bail and bring the transgressors back to the community for a trial. In a patriarchal society only beholden to itself, how far will that go? Will justice be served or will the result be self serving? The whole community would have known about these "ghost"attacks during the night. That leaves a lot of men that did nothing. I didn't participate is no where near a sufficient excuse.