SEATTLE — Winner of Best Adapted Screenplay at the Critics' Choice Awards, "Women Talking," is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Written by Sarah Polley (who also directed,) the film is set in an off-the-grid religious colony. It's a fable-like story about abuse, reflection, and courage.
Following a series of vicious rapes, women secretly vote to do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.
"It was intense, but it was brilliant,” said Jessie Buckley, who stars as Mariche. "It was like, I wanted to come to work every day. I've definitely had more intense jobs.”
“For different reasons, and less fun!," Claire Foy (who plays Salome) added.
The actresses are close in real life but their characters are at odds, each processing trauma differently. Salome wants to stay and fight.
"I just understood her need for change, her frustration with people,” Foy said. "And also her rage and her righteous kind of anger at what's happened to her. It wasn't necessarily that I identify that with myself but I just felt like she was completely justified and I was on board with her, basically, as a person. That she was so unrelentingly herself in this group of women, I just really, really admired that about her."
Mariche’s pain is more complicated. She internalizes abuse and is terrified of the unknown.
"I think I was drawn to Mariche because was there was a lot of her I didn't relate to,” Buckley said. “Sometimes it's better, the devil you know. It's easier to hope for something better in the next life and allow yourself to want something better in the next life than actually letting yourself want it and hope for it in this life that you're living right now. I feel fiercely protective of her, having got to know where that fear and pain comes from in a woman like that, I love her even more. I guess what I will take from her is: the people that hurt the hardest laugh the loudest. And I have a big laugh. So I want to take her laugh with me — I want to make my laugh even bigger.”
Despite the film’s dark premise, it’s ultimately a story of strength, resolve, and hope.
“I think whatever people's reactions are to the film are the right reactions,” Foy said. "I just encourage people to see it because I think it really does provoke people to look at the world in a different way and ask really hard questions of themselves. It's a real opportunity for people to learn and understand and see."
As the title implies, much of the movie is just talking — but don’t let that dissuade you from watching. What's debated and revealed is gripping, and the cinematography is beautiful. “Women Talking” is more than just a film — it’s a necessary reflection of humanity.
“Women Talking” is rated PG-13.
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