Women Talking

I’m fairly certain this film never passes the Bechdel test, but that ironically and tellingly doesn’t make it any less radical or feminist. The script’s delicate, painterly way it shows a community trying to articulate heartache and indignation when they don’t even have the language, yet, for their experience, is really masterful. Some monologues here shine and scream. There are detracting elements in the plot but they don’t take away from the collective performance of outrage.

This could have been unbearably bleak or melodramatic, but instead it’s gentle, funny, and poetic, full of rage and nuance, and layered with significance and spontaneity - it’s women talking. Masterfully written to softly and with great care form a quilt of trauma, resilience, faith, anger, identity, responsibility - and more. It’s incredibly powerful and important.

Women be talkin'. They also be consensus buildin', and the group dynamic shines in the rat-a-tat interplay among the cast, which pings from baroque and serious to raw and expectedly juvenile. Does a great job of capturing the myriad reactions people have to shared trauma.

Women talking. Men listening. Polley does an excellent job of centering the women's stories while also, graciously, giving us a glimpse of an ally. The writing and performances brim with nuance and power; the soundtrack is sublime. The women's circular, gradual journey towards a decision is mesmerizing. No political bullshit, no power-hungry posturing, no patriarchal red tape. Just raw, unfiltered dialogue, with hands on shoulders, songs in the air, and everyone from young to old with a voice.

Well-acted -- specially Buckley -- and nicely put together little powerful quiet drama on the desperate need for a voice in a community where women are raised not to speak, write or learn anything, just listen and obey.

I just could not get into this at all. There was something off with how the characters were written and performed. Didn’t help I wasn’t into the religious stuff at all. Stuck in the same location for almost all of the movie can work, but this time it simply didn’t hold my interest. At least it wasn’t long I suppose.

Dans cette époque totalement tordue, chargée en combats progressistes, et autres délires revanchards, ce film là peut franchement se targuer d'être authentiquement féministe. Il ne met personne à l'écart, et prend son temps pour poser toutes les réflexions, pour donner un sens à toutes les voix contraires. Intéressant, Claire Foy et Jessie Buckley excellentes, mais un peu long, et Ben Whishaw est trop niais dans son interprétation.

As someone who hadn't seen the trailer and didn't know anything about the movie other than that it was written/directed by Sarah Polley, it was a huge shock to realize this isn't a period piece 30 minutes in. I gasped and said "oh my god, they're just Amish"

I often find talky movies stimulating and this one was off to a promising start but it sort of lost me along the way.

I was surprised that this novel was getting adapted into a film. Yet, the film does a good job at showing roughly 100 minutes of, yes, women talking. Unfortunately, this film fails the Bechedel Test.

See how the characters adapt to modern living in the sequel: WOMEN SHOPPING.

I love movies about people talking. Always have. I think conversation can be more scintillating than blockbuster action sequences. But there's an art to a piece centred on conversation and Polley is exceptional at what she does, striking a deft balance so this subject matter doesn't run too far in any maudlin direction. It's well written, directed, edited, and showcases a powerhouse cast, but I do think it missteps a handful of times -- meandering when it should be revving.

Successfully deals with many possible reactions to sexual assault in a closed community.

Furious and sorrowful without being grim and despairing. A powerful look at the different reactions to trauma and a disregarded people finally learning the power of their own voice, with a murderer’s row of seriously excellent performances and an evocative score.

I think this went over my head. Best watched in a women's studies class (I'm sure it will be shown in all of them).

The first hour I caught myself thinking - this is GREAT. Poetic, timely spin on the 12 Angry Men. Polley’s vision feels assured. The last act completely lost me. All the subtlety seems gone. Whishaw’s character suddenly seems underthought and overwritten. So many moments lack the nuance found earlier. So many characters seem to be lost in the shuffle. It’s a shame and a disservice to the first two acts. Still, well performed and powerful in stretches.

Most of my issues with the film have to do with the source material, and not the film itself. This type of source material is best suited for a stage play and is wasted on the big screen. It seems to boil women down to emotional blobs as they confront the trauma in their lives through pacifism and discussion. I know women are more complex than this, which makes it a very poor film of feminism. The film will only reach a very small subsect of the population. Everyone else won't be able to relate

Kadınların gücü. 1 koloni'de yaşayan kadınlar, erkekler tarafından tecavüz ve şiddet görmektedirler. Kadınlar, toplanıp erkekler için 1 karar vermeleri gerekmektedir. İlk başta filme adapte olmakta zorlandım. Birde çok olay anlatılmış. Hızlı konuşma tekniğine başvurulmuş. Kadınların hepsinin çok iyi olduğu film, filmin sonunu da çok beğendiğimi söylemeyebilirim. Filmin sonunda ne mi var? Gidiyorlar. Allahım sana geliyorum. Allahım neydi günahım.

Boring feminist unwatchable nonsense.

Is it bad because it is a “message-movie” or is it just a bad “message-movie”? I am not sure. Perhaps this story could have been good but the final movie is a mess with dreary cinematography and stilted, theatrical dialogue. The characters are one-dimensional and outside of a few great monologues, the acting is wobbly. What I liked is how kind and emotionally available the characters were to each other and that the story fully focused on the victims.

Compelling tale courage with amazing performances across the board. It takes every opinion as valid and never shames any of the women for daring to speak her mind.

It may be the least cinematic movie I have seen in some time, but it is unique and oddly compelling.

If you’re not a puritan then by the end you will feel like one

unfortunately had a bit of a "straight to video" feel with the blatant color grading

Hard content presented well. Excellent cast.

Knowing what happens, having read the book, I'm glad they changed the narrator. August is too meek and doe-eyed as a character, and this is not a dig at Ben Whishaw; Sarah Polley saw it fit to make Autje the narrator and makes it all the more compelling and easier to connect to the rest of the characters.

Deliberately delivering too much talk and not much action on a chilling topic of abuse and control. Doesn't quite get as powerful as it should have been. The production isolates itself, even from a non-story perspective, and that prevents the outside danger from creeping in. But naturally there are moments of dark humor and despair that does hit its mark.

Next time just make a fucking podcast. This is not cinema.

A very interesting script that was executed beautifully. There is a feeling of artificiality to the whole thing, where the depth of the dialog and the arguments sometimes feels at odds with the super isolated background and lack of education of the characters, but it did not hurt the overall impression.

Too steril to have things stick and I’m not sure the dialectic idea of lining up snippets of thoughts and point of views really produce a lot but exactly that: snippets. The characters are never alive yet merely placeholders for thin ideas. The lack of contradiction and complexity feels unintentionally anti-feminist. As if striving for an equal life requires nothing but thought and presentation of thought. There is an academic, theoretical nativity in this text, which makes it a weak text.

This is a well made film, with a good script and strong performances. This film has a nice ensemble cast who all do great work here. Overall I would highly recommend this film.

Absorbing if uncinematic. Some crucial details in the novel are presented too obliquely or seem to have been changed or omitted altogether, to the story's detriment.

There's something great in here but we only really get glimpses of it. The dialogue feels a bit too contrived at times, which is a problem for a film with the word 'talking' in its title.

The title is a perfect description. Given the subject matter, this is way more interesting than I was expecting. It's extremely talky and stagey and there's not a ton of external drama, but it's extremely well performed and covers a number of timely topics in an unusual way. McDormand is really underused--I assume by her choice. One of those movies where you really want to see what happened next. A very good film, though it loses a bit of steam as it moves along.

A movie that desperately wants to box you into liking by sheer force of ACTING and ISSUES but it’s just a dull affair visually and there’s only so many times you can watch someone ratchet up to 100 while others look on withered and stone faced. I still have faith in Polley and that’s all that really matters

GREAT filmmaking. Women’s voices need to be heard, and I believe there is plenty of room in cinema for movie of this caliber (debating and chatting for most of the runtime). It’s really well acted, bringing out some of the best acting of the year in my opinion. I don’t love the coloring and cinematography, but I get the intention, and I still greatly appreciate movies like this, for being made and for being greenlit. It asks thought-provoking questions and the answers aren’t always easy.

The film's focus on women's agency and imagination, as well as its forward-thinking mentality, make it a powerful and thought-provoking watch. The performances are exceptional, and the score is stunning. However, the constant denial and questioning of women's experiences and the muted color grading may detract from the overall experience for some viewers.

Polley's translation of this source material is very good and serves to give a voice to these women that have, for so long, not had one. There are some one-dimensional characters and maybe some funky color grading, but I enjoyed this. Ben Whishaw's uncanny ability to seem so meek is amazing.

Never less than compelling and engaging with this sterling line-up of performers all bringing their A-game, (the timeworn dignity of Ivey and McCarthy are highlights) – Polley’s screenplay does a nimble job in the adaptation, she can’t quite achieve a cinematic sense of the claustrophobic setting, it just feels claustrophobic and stifling; has some resonances with MA RAINEY in this regard (and similarly would likely come to better life on the stage).

Give me that old-time religion.. not!

A quietly powerful film. There are moments when the pacing and performances seem slightly off kilter but that also reflects the changing emotions of the woman as they process their options and what has happened to them.

Impressive Feminist Film!!!

Lmaosleepyjeanithoughtthiswasthe1800s+lotsofeyeroll/grossstufflol+startedgoodbutcouldntsustainit

You are warned: They do talk.

What other reason than an oscar hunt with perfect bait could there be for turning this play into a movie? Surely not to turn it into a movie, because it’s still a play, to be performed on a stage with an audience, and i would definitely not be in that audience to save myself from the supremely uninteresting dialog by chronically emotional and indignant women checking off all the woke talking points. Build something, construct a story, take the viewer somewhere, don’t just sit there and bitch!

Ultimately feels very stagey. Polley said she was inspired by ford when directing this and I can’t see that at all. I get that they’re trying to make it look that way to fit the story, but there’s a way to make things look drab and hopeless and not have the film look cheap and shitty. A disappointing return for Polley

While some of its structure and pacing could use some refinement to allow for more depth of conversation, Women Talking starkly depicts the process of learning how to think for and about one's own self for the first time after religious oppression takes someone's worth away. Sarah Polley's screenplay and direction is simple yet highly effective, and the blocking of the group discussions that dominate the film is excellent.

It's not a particularly cinematic or visually compelling film, and it has some odd structural issues. That's not a very serious criticism, but it does hold the film back at times. It also is about 15 minutes longer than it should be. Still, it's a film that feels important, especially in the current cultural climate.

Women Talking is easily the best ensemble acting effort of 2022. The screenplay sometimes expresses its big emotions in slightly too hokey of a way, but for the most part it's a tender affecting film. Polley is able to give this movie a richness and realism that would have been unattainable in lesser hands. The way she films the hayloft scenes gives life to a movie that might otherwise feel too stagey. Unfortunately it still feels like I'm missing a bit of context to fully appreciate everything.

I was extremely impressed with Polley’s direction, particularly with how she handles the talky hayloft scenes that occupy the bulk of the runtime. They’re beautifully crafted and blocked while offering a visual dynamism that’s engaging without being showy. I’m a little more dubious of her screenplay which occasionally feels preachy or on-the-nose and struggles to divorce itself from its novelistic origins. Nonetheless, this is far better executed than it would have been in most other hands.