Women Talking Is a 'Murderer's Row of Talent'

Three generations of women from a remote Mennonite community have a matter of hours to decide how to respond to brutal sexual assault denied by the colony's men in Sarah Polley's Women Talking, based on the 2018 novel by Miriam Toews, who also serves as screenwriter of the film with a 91% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus: Incredible talent and difficult subject matter combine for an extraordinary cinematic experience. Here's what critics are saying:

• It's a "dialogue-driven movie" where "most of the action occurs in the hay-strewn barn, filmed by [cinematographer] Luc Montpellier in dreary shades of gray," writes Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post. But that doesn't make it boring. "Once the viewer accepts its mannered style and bluntly literalistic vernacular, it builds to a kind of unadorned grandeur," with an "exhilarating conclusion," writes Hornaday, who gives the "stirring drama" 3 stars out of 4.
• "Polley's trust in the material—and her actors—allows for the performances to flourish, and the performances drive the story along with the barrage of words," writes Sheila O'Malley at RogerEbert.com, offering a 3 out of 4 star rating. Serving as an imaginative response to real-life events, the film is helped by "a murderer's row of talent," O'Malley writes. Rooney Mara "gives a beautifully open performance" as Ona and Claire Foy gives a "powerful" one as Salome, whose "rage is incandescent."

• The AP's Lindsey Bahr gives the film a perfect 4/4 score. "Expressionistic and lyrical, biting and poetic," this "extraordinary" movie "may just help those previously unable to find words or even coherent feelings for their own traumatic experiences," she writes. As for actor Ben Whishaw, who plays the sole man permitted into the discussion as record keeper (the women are illiterate), "I'm not sure it would be possible for his performance to be sweeter or more heartbreaking."
• "Polley achieves a cinematic miracle of sorts with her exquisite and wise adaptation of Miriam Toews' celebrated novel," writes Randy Myers at the San Jose Mercury News, who also gives the film a perfect score. Though it "might sound like a bitter pill," the film "moves you in profound ways and is sometimes funny and hopeful." "From the acting to the directing and on to one of the best screenplays of the year, it is a tour-de-force in every sense."

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