WOMEN TALKING

Forget about that Best Picture nomination: one can only call Women Talking an annoyingly self-important snoozefest.

Women Talking is one of the ten nominees shortlisted for the year’s most prestigious film price, the Best Picture Oscar, but it doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near that honour.

The movie basically does what it says on the tin, as a dozen religious women contemplate leaving their secluded congregation after some of the men have raped and physically assaulted them in a drunken stupor. With a good screenplay this premise might have played out as an intriguing huis clos, with constantly shifting insights and alliances. Alas Sarah Polley, who doubles as the director of Women Talking, never finds the spark that could have set the movie alight.

On the contrary, the movie becomes more tedious by the minute, with conversations that frustratingly go in circles and visualised parables that are more laughably naïve then they are insightful.

The cast still seems game – a fierce Claire Foy leaves the most lasting impression – and the music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir is easily among the year’s best, but overall one can only call Women Talking an annoyingly self-important snoozefest.

release: 2022

director: Sarah Polley

starring: Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Ben Wishaw