"Women Talking" has the foundation for a great movie -- strong acting, a decent script, and solid filming. However, its fatal flaw is its complete mischaracterization of how people living in an "unpierced veil" would actually react to the situation they were put in. Most modern media botch their depictions of faithful religious societies (ex: Game of Thrones), but the case of Women Talking is particularly egregious because faith is central to the film's plot -- meaning its mistakes in this department undermine the entire film.
My main problem with this movie is that the writers essentially wrote the characters from their own perspective instead of the perspective of a person who grew up in a closed, hierarchical, unquestioning religious society. The characters in this movie react to their situation in a way that may have been realistic if they were members of your typical conservative small town church -- but is not realistic for illiterate members of a completely closed off cult.
The characters -- who are depicted as having grown up in a snow globe (meaning they lived in a society where their religious and social beliefs have never been questioned -- they are considered as true as the air we breathe), do not act in this manner. These true believers who grew up with only one world view and had likely never met outsiders instead act as if they grew up in a secular suburb where the "veil" of faith had already been pierced.
These illiterate people who should truly deeply believe in the truth of the faith and life they grew up in (as they'd never seen anyone question it) do the following -- immediately propose creating a new religion, perform a university level sociological analysis of the preconditions to their oppression, and extensively discuss philosophy & pedagogy in high flying language. It is not believable and strips any depth the film could have had -- turning it into a fairly superficial social commentary.
In reality none of this would have happened. Instead they would have deeply agonized about how leaving would impact them in the afterlife, about leaving their husbands, brothers, and sons behind (no matter how abusive they were), about how they were to enter the 'evil' outside world, about how women could ever live without men (from their pov), about reconciling what happened with the lies they were told their entire lives (lies that they do not recognize as lies), and about finding the language to even question their society.
The discussion would not have been about fighting vs leaving. It would have been about staying vs leaving with very few wanting to leave at first. It would have involved the leavers being called blasphemers and devils for even bringing it up, it would have involved people defending the rapists and their enablers, it would have involved screaming, it would have involved anyone who broke gender norms being beaten down - not accepted, and most women likely would not have left.
Writing from the perspective of the "unpierced veil" these characters would have grown up in instead of the secular, liberal, and free society the writers grew up in wouldn't have been easy on the writers or the audience. And it would have made the characters much less likable.
However, the payoff would have made this movie significantly better as the characters would have been far more complex and achieved real development; the cult's world and its terror would have felt far more real; the emotional moments would have been more believable and hit much harder; and the ending wouldn't have been telegraphed 15 minutes in.
19 out of 36 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends