This movie was another highly anticipated one for me.
This movie starrs Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver (“The Good House”), Chris Messina (STARZ’s “Gaslit”), Kate Mara (“Ghostbuster”), Evangeline Young (“Bull”), , Rebecca Henderson (“WestWorld “). just to name a few.
This movie was directed by Phyllis Nagy
This movie was released on October 28th 2022.
This movie debuted at the “Berlin International Film Festival”, “Sundance Film Festival”, “Deauville American Film Festival”. “NewPort Beach Film Festival”, and many many more!
This movie is a Drama/History. It was rated R for language and drug use.
Onto the premise: Set in the late 1960s a pregnant housewife finds out she had a potentially life threatening illness whilst pregnant and the only treatment is to have an abortion. Declined by the hospital board of directors, she sets out to find an alternative to hospital treatment. Upon finding a group who offer services to facilitate illegal abortions she then gets more involved in the service, ‘Call Jane’.
Elizabeth Banks was lovely as Joy about a not very joyous story!
The movie tells a true story about the ‘Janes’, an underground club of women in Chicago in the 1960s, who secretly provided 12,000 women and girls with desperate abortions from life threatening situations. Fight for legalizing abortion in the States. Lightweight movie. Raids and legal battles were left out of the movie.
Questions of morality and legality were left out. And after too many abortions, the story felt cold hearted and abortions were performed almost routinely. Nevertheless, it was a triumph for women who have a right to choose!
Despite the fact that this movie’s story takes places a few decades ago, the theme on abortion is still sadly a topic in today’s day and age…. This movie takes timely and takes a mostly neutral and observational perspective on abortions back then.
It certainly leans pro choice in its message by the end but offers many plausible and sympathetic scenarios while not straying into preachy territory. If it had remained completely neutral through the end, I feel it would have been a near masterpiece, but we are missing greater consequences in favor of the successful progression and more insight into debate could have driven the point home harder.
Other social commentary on race and gender roles are touched on but never fully addressed. The procedure scenes themselves were done so well that it invokes anxiety involving medical tools or needles, and it did so without showing anything remotely graphic.
Elizabeth Banks gave a terrifically real performance, especially when she was in the chair on both ends. The supporting cast cannot be ignored either, especially the legendary Sigourney Weaver who is always a welcome presence. Delicate, old-fashioned filmmaking also delivered a more engrossing experience with a slow pace and quiet execution of dialogue driven drama with nearly no musical score to distract. This allowed for a more earned emotional appeal as we, audience can digest their own feelings
Stay tuned for more reviews
Movie reviews with ceren 