Women Talking: Movie Review

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand

Director: Sarah Polley

Harrowing, hard-viewing and yet somehow cathartically uplifting, Sarah Polley's Women Talking feels like a tour de force playlet writ large for the big screen.

However, there's no denying this 100 minute tale of a group of women discussing their future after being drugged, raped and impregnated by the men of their religious community is anything but a stern warning and rejoinder to toxic male behaviour.

Yet it's also not misanthropic too, thanks to a sensitive turn by Ben Whishaw, as the community teacher August brought in to take notes for the women as they decide whether to stay and fight, leave or do nothing after a bridge too far.

In amongst this group are a range of women who've been gaslit, and who are now in fear of their lives - but each has a different reason for the communal rage they share. From Claire Foy's Salome who worries she'll lose her soul if she stays longer as she'll kill someone, to Jessie Buckley's indignant and angry Mariche whose children are in the sights to Frances McDormand's Scarface who refuses to go or be part of the discussion, every tale is handled with sensitivity and a feeling of rounded characters.

Flashbacks of bruised thighs or bleeding births show the horror of the men, who remain faceless throughout in this; Polley makes a conscious choice to only show the face of August and the boys of the commune, at once granting them a chance for redemption while robbing the guilty of a presence.

The film's more interested in the debate and the philosophy rather than the reconstruction of what's happened - but it loses none of the power from its telling from doing so. 

Polley has taken Miriam Toews's book, which was inspired by the sustained abuse of hundreds at the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia between 2005 and 2009, and fashioned it into a kind of one set stage play that still has something uplifting to proffer despite its brutal premise.

With a greyed out aesthetic and a sheen of sparsity, this lean production relies on the power of its cast to provide a truly haunting and compelling film that provokes plenty of discussion after the lights have gone out.

While it could have gone hard on the angry side and condemnation, it simply presents the facts and shows the effects to ensure the 12 Angry Men elements feel more organic rather than overly produced - it's an important difference and the film retains its power greatly from doing so.

There's plenty to debate here. From forgiveness to nature and nurture, the fruits and ramifications for any parent or person in a position of power are many, but not once does Polley turn to editorialising, preferring to leave a more aloof directorial touch to do the necessary work.

Polley trusts in her actors to deliver, and they do - without a doubt, Women Talking may be one of the hardest films of 2023, but thanks to a sensitive delivery, its powerful message will live long after the lights have gone up.