Best Adapted Screenplay: Women Talking
GRETA: I want to talk about my horses; Ruth and Cheryl. When Ruth and Cheryl are frightened by Deuck’s dogs, their first instinct is to bolt. My horses do not convene to decide what action to take. They run.
AGATA: But Greta, we are not animals.
GRETA: We have been preyed upon like animals. Should we not respond like animals.
One of those films where halfway through it, you realize you’ll be needing a rewatch. So you stop trying to analyze or infer or think critically about the sequences unfolding, and just take it all in. And that is exactly what Sarah Polley carefully auteurs with this very heavy but somber piece; just listen to these women talk. What happens when a group of women are repeatedly raped, abused and defiled? What happens when a colony of young girls go to bed not knowing if that night might be their turn? What happens when even the old, the blind, and the mentally unstable are not exempt from immoral profanities? they dream. We’re women without a voice. Even the animals in their barns are safer than we women are. All we have are our dreams. So of course we’re dreamers. They dream of going to a different colony and starting a new life. And some members of their group oppose this idea, instead opting for the “safer” alternative of staying and negotiating with the men. But what would they do if the men refuse their demands. We will kill them.
MARICHE: We have decided that we want… that we are entitled to three things.
GRETA: What are they?
MARICHE: We want our children to be safe.
We want to be steadfast in our faith.
And we want to think.
Two things I think were in fact perfect: screenplay and score. I am very strongly rooting for this script, I don’t think I had a single issue with any part of the story, the pacing was well done, the dialogue — in case it wasn’t clear from all my quotes above — was very inspired. And the score, That. Is. How. You. Use. Music. In. A. Film. Mon Dieu. I’m beginning to run out of superlatives for Guðnadóttir, but after Tár and Women Talking, she’s become my favorite composer. And initially, I hated the white man savior trope in August Epp, but towards the end of it — way before the first tear streamed down my face — I had already gone through the 5 phases of grief because Ben Whishaw has no chance against Quan and Keoghan. But streets will never forget this supporting actor performance. Very reminiscent of Kodi Smit-McPhee’s in The Power of the Dog that my friend, Peter, mixed both actors up.
Still all my song shall be nearer, my God, to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee. Nearer, to Thee.
