Women Talking
At home (with lovely Adam), 24th February 2023
There has been quite a gap in my film watching; the end of term is always more exhausting and both daughters have been ill all through the holidays (absolutely standard behaviour for them). So, it was a real treat to have my brilliant friend Adam come over, Grandma and Mark look after the children and watch Women Talking on an afternoon after a lunch of bread, cheese and wine. Pure decadence pictured below where you see that Rufus and some custard tarts also helped us out…
The film itself immediately made me think of a Feminist Twelve Angry Men mixed with Witness (which I watched for the first time recently on the iPlayer and Harrison Ford is a stone cold hottie). The debating aspect of the film in one key location was pleasing and I always enjoy a dialogue heavy film and this felt like a filmed play at points, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The sexual abuse aspect was dealt with very sensitively and I liked that the men were properly absent from the film apart from Ben Wishaw’s note-taking character. Like Mark Rylance, I would watch Ben Wishaw taking out the bins for two hours and feel like it was time well spent.
The ensemble cast were fantastic, especially Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley. It seems strange that many of the cast were English, but they seemed to do a great job with their accents. This film follows the pattern of other 2023 Oscar nominated films of seeing a focus on women and their stories. The 2023 Oscar films must be doing better than previous years in terms of the Bechdel Test!
Ultimately, I found the film compelling and well told, but not a stand out from this year’s films.
In other news, my Vanity Fair Hollywood issue has arrived! 29 issues and counting…
Harry's homemade film MA 