Now writing & directing, Canadian Sarah Polley (no acting credits since 2010) picks up on a riveting fact-inspired story involving the physical/sexual/psychological violation of women in an isolated ultra-religious sect; fictionalized in Miriam Toews' novel & here extrapolated into a sort of trial & debate among the victims on what to do. Stay in the community as it is; remain but fight for change; or abruptly & permanently leave. Presentation and playing are all you could wish for, but Polley seems better at executing her vision than inventing anything beyond a feminist 12 ANGRY MENNONITES. Too many narrative & structural misjudgements (modest SPOILER Alert ahead!) like the surprise that we’re not following a 19th century period piece, but something from 2010. What might have been allowed to seep in as possible anachronistic moments (smoking, a watch, modern vocabulary) is a ‘got’cha’ story beat ‘discovered’ as a modern tune plays on a passing car radio. No one challenging or doubting their belief, only its practice. The best written role going to the only male in the story.* And the most problematic, making all the characters so articulate, especially when you consider the level of education/sophistication allowed to women in the community.* The way this largely illiterate group figures things out, they’d fit right in to one of those near plotless George Bernard Shaw talkathon plays. Only there, GBS provides theatrical distancing Polley can’t. Still, the strengths in the filmmaking and the situation hold you all the way thru.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *That’s Ben Whishaw drawing on his inner Stephen Rea as the member of the community assigned to keep a record of the discussion. Between getting his mop of hair under control and how he looks more substantial playing against an all-female cast, he’s never come off better on screen.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Not so different from how Stephen King made all the boys in STAND BY ME/'86 'tween psychologists-in-training.
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