Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Women Talking’ on VOD, Sarah Polley’s Star-Studded Condemnation of Violence

Women Talking (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video) is Sarah Polley’s first directorial effort in a decade, since 2012’s extraordinary documentary Stories We Tell – which is to say, it’s an event. Further proof for this assertion: She got heavy hitters Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley to star in an adaptation of Miriam Toews’ novel of the same name, a fictionalized iteration of true events that occurred at a Mennonite colony in Bolivia, where a group of men drugged and raped dozens of women in their sleep. The film earned Oscar nods for Best Picture and adapted screenplay, and the ensemble work on display likely scuttled Foy, Buckley and Mara from consideration. Polley’s return to fiction filmmaking – its predecessors are Away From Her and Take This Waltz, tough acts to follow – heaps further anticipatory expectations upon this film; now let’s see if it matches them.

WOMEN TALKING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ona (Mara) awakens with a start, the insides of her thighs purpled with massive bruises. She’s not the only one on the colony who was sprayed with animal tranquilizer and violated, and now, months later, those women are ready to do… what exactly? Their three options are: Do nothing. Stay and fight the men. Or leave the colony. The rapists have been jailed, and most of the remaining men are off posting bail, leaving the women two days to put it to a vote. That some actually choose the do-nothing option isn’t quite shocking; everyone here believes that this life is reserved for suffering and the next life is paradise, and that exiting the colony will result in their being denied at the gates of heaven. Still, “do nothing” loses the vote, which is good. The problem isn’t solved, though – there’s a tie between “stay and fight” and “leave.” And so they must debate.

Eight women climb into a hayloft to discuss their two options: Ona – pregnant by her attacker – Salome (Foy) and Mariche (Buckley) are in their 30s. Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy) are older. Mejal (Michelle McLeod), Autje (Kate Hallett) and Nietje (Liv McNeil) are teenagers, maybe a touch younger. (These brutal men do not discriminate by age.) There were more than eight, but Scarface Janz (McDormand) voted to do nothing and, after initial discussions, abandoned them to their liberal assertions. They have an ally in August (Ben Whishaw), the colony’s schoolteacher. Unlike the women, he’s literate, so he records the minutes of their meetings. Melvin (August Winter), a trans man formerly named Nettie, takes care of the children while the women deliberate. Suddenly, we hear music. A truck rolls through the colony, hoping to count the citizenry for the 2010 census.

And so they debate. About forgiveness, a core element of their faith. About their desire to be free from male tyranny, free to think for themselves. About the pros and cons of fighting and leaving. If they fight and win, they can reshape the colony under the tenets of love. If they fight, they may become murderers. If they leave, they face excommunication. If they leave, their daughters will be safe and their sons will be raised to be respectful men. There’s anger; they argue. There’s joy; they laugh. August dutifully takes notes. He shows Ona, his friend since childhood and the woman he loves, how to use the stars to navigate direction. You have to hold your fist in the air. So Ona holds her fist in the air.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The emphasis on dialogue and debate brings to mind 12 Angry Men for the #MeToo era: Women Talking could also be titled 8 Angry Women.

Performance Worth Watching: Buckley and Foy get more traditional big-emotion monologues, but Mara’s characterization – of a philosopher fueled by love, hope and optimism in spite of the horror she’s endured – stands out. 

Memorable Dialogue: Living in an isolated rural community means one is divorced from the common vernacular:

Mariche: Oh, f— it off!

Nietje: It’s ‘f— off,’ I think.

Sex and Skin: Implied sexual violence.

Our Take: With its monologues and intense subject matter, it’s hard not to pigeonhole Women Talking as an Acting Showcase. And there’s little subtext here – the film’s ideas are flush in the dialogue, which is unfailingly rich, thoughtful and embroidered with the realities and philosophies of the characters’ experiences. You may have to suspend disbelief to accept that these illiterate women can speak so eloquently, but then again, there’s a reason these eight are deciding the fate of all the women and children in the colony. And none are so gullible as to believe the enraging defense of the men, who blame the rapes on “demons” and “wild female imagination.”

The emotions here are broiling and infectious, as they should be. But that’s as histrionic as the film gets. That’s why the film isn’t titled Women Taking Revenge or Women Being Violent – it’s a depiction of women being better people than their male oppressors. The film feels like a deliberate antidote to so many male-driven films that are resolved with acts of violence: action movies, war movies, superhero movies, comedies where the bully gets socked in the mouth or humiliated. It’s all so… Old Testament.

And oh, the irony, when we consider these women living within the parameters of a fundamentalist religion. Like pragmatic and judicious humans, and absolutely not like grotesque stereotypes of irrational, unpredictable women we see so often in film, Polley’s characters talk it out. They high-road it. They see the path to peace. Foy and Buckley play women with fiery passion who understand the satisfying immediacy of fighting back, but eventually land at a place of logic when they consider the consequences of heaping violence atop violence. Some might gripe that Polley’s film lacks visual dynamics, but they’re missing the point. The goal is clarity, concision, earnestness – and reason. It may seem artificial at times, but it never ceases to be powerful.

Our Call: Polley continues to be a vital filmmaker. STREAM IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.