Women Talking

Based on Miriam Toews’ novel, Women Talking follows a group of Mennonite women as they gather to decide what to do after several men commit unspeakable crimes. Filmmaker Sarah Polley, armed with her own screenplay, delivers a progressively underwhelming adaptation that fares best in its striking (and promising) opening stretch, as the movie boasts an intensely cinematic feel that’s heightened by Luc Montpellier’s compelling visuals and an assortment of first-class performances – with, in terms of the latter, Polley eliciting top-notch work from folks like Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, and Ben Whishaw. (Claire Foy is especially captivating as an angry figure bent on revenge.) It’s clear, then, that Women Talking’s grip on the viewer is slowly-but-surely loosened by a slack midsection rife with far-from-engrossing stretches, as Polley proves unable (or unwilling) to infuse the dialogue-heavy narrative with elements designed to sustain one’s dwindling interest – with the increasingly arms-length atmosphere compounded by the growing realization that much of this chatter simply isn’t very compelling (ie it’s all very repetitive and meandering, ultimately). The inclusion of a few stirring moments near the end, including (and especially), an emotional interlude involving Whishaw’s August, can’t quite compensate for what’s become a distressingly tedious endeavor, with the end result a drama that does, for better or worse, fall right in line with its equally hit-and-miss source material.

** out of ****