If there's one issue that can even compare with gay marriage in terms of controversy and division of opinion, it has to be abortion. What other issue gets religious zealots riled up in such a picket sign-waving frenzy like abortion can at the first mention of the word? As it is with forms of art, where there is controversy there are a few movies to tackle the issue with fervor on both sides of the argument.
Such is 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. In a very subtle way, however, the movie sends out a very anti-abortion vibe. The movie involves two twenty-something year old girls living in communist Romania (obviously towards the end, considering the widely spread black market-esque smuggling of cigarettes and bus tickets) attempting a very roughly-strewn plan of getting an abortion. This is illegal, very much so, though the crumbling of the government's tight control has allowed even naive young women to bend the rules. The abortion, and the process of it itself, brings about several revelations about themselves, their lives, and of course the main topic at hand.
First off, the positives. The acting is absolutely stellar. Stellar in how subtle every emotion is presented in every scene. Stellar in how sometimes the camera doesn't cut for literally 10 minutes, and the entirety of those scenes are acted in one go. Stellar in how the characters are made to be exact representations of people you could literally meet in the house next door to you, yet are still made interesting without breaking out of this shell.
The pacing is very well done, as we're slowly drawn into the situation at hand instead of the director just shoving the characters down our throat like that godawful adaption that the director's thought it would be funny to call Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It has an unusual air of tension. Just think when you were a kid and you were in school and you knew when you got home your parents would be mad about something, possibly school-related or not. That lingering feeling of something bad coming, but coming slowly, is what drives this movie. And as awful as that sounds it works wonders.
This really comes into such genius fruition during a dinner scene, which might be one of the finest directed scenes in recent history.
The negatives come with a few lines of forced dialogue, an odd beginning that definitely could've been a bit better, and the fact I had to keep looking down at subtitles when so much of the acting is in the subtle facial movements of the two lead roles.
Overall, 8.5/10. Download and watch, because there's no international release. Enjoy watching an abortion.
fuck. i just spent 30 minutes writing a long comment on my thoughts on the movie, and it fucks up with the posting. so heres the short version.
ReplyDeleteThere was excellent acting, but it was slow, tense, and kinda boring.
I felt like they took a really boring script, and did an excellent job. acting alone doesn't cut it. mediocre movie. maybe 6/10. download, watch, then delete. no point saving it.