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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Director: Cristian Mungiu

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2 reviews

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From Time Out New York

Last year at the movies, two fiercely independent American women brought unplanned pregnancies to term—decisions that delighted comedy fans, if not those who confuse protecting abortion with insisting upon it. The attendant debate, a healthy one, should also include this harrowing Romanian drama, which, by dint of release patterns, is coming out now instead of last spring. At that time, it stunned Cannes audiences and won the top prize. But as with Knocked Up and Juno, the movie refracts the difficulties of women through a fun-house mirror of disappointing men. Here, they’re pretty close to nightmarish.

Set in late-1980s Bucharest, still behind the Iron Curtain, Cristian Mungiu’s film concerns Gabita (Vasiliu), a young woman in trouble, and, more centrally, Otilia (Marinca), her tougher friend who’s coming along to support her through an illegal procedure with a black-market abortionist. The centerpiece of the film is that negotiation, which plays out in a nondescript hotel room. The smug Bebe (Ivanov) escalates his demands, and the hellish crucible of economics, power games and sex—what abortion really is for so many—comes into sharp focus.

So it’s a tribute to Mungiu’s unflinching feminism that his very next sequence, an echo of sorts, is almost as powerful: a family dinner at the home of Otilia’s boyfriend. Pinned down by the camera, she endures as older men laugh at her “simple” class, and plan a life of cooking potatoes for her. Otilia’s eventual eruption is cheerworthy.

Author: Joshua Rothkopf 2008-01-29 16:54:35

Time Out New York Issue 643: January 24–30

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Sep 03 2008 01:08 The best film stories of recent years are those which
depict the reality of what is.This one places a camera
into the heart of a dying totalitarian regime. We see the dark ugliness, the rancour of petty officials,the
bartering for black market goods,the dull muted colours,
the dogs.But this film having learned it's lessons from dogme film and the Dardennes bros. that following a
moving body and vital mind into a pit of hell is possible
if it's done with subtlety,nuance and excellence.The two great scenes are where the two female friends have
to barter their souls(and bodies) with the evil,sinister
Mr Bebe,the abortionist. The other is where Otilia has
been forced to leave her friend abandoned in a seedy
hotel undergoing abortion while she is mocked and
humiliated by her boyfriends parents friends. The
amount of different emotions she silently registers at
the table to celebrate his mother's birthday is
remarkable.The subject of abortion is more a Maguffin:
the true subject is the ways women suffer in a crushing
dictatorship and how the human spirit rallies and survives.Marinca and Ivanov give astounding performances.The cinematography-long-shots,hand held cameras,one takes for each scene-is astounding.
Hollywwod wouldn't give it an oscar because it's
treatment of abortion was too realistic and it beat
No Country For Old Men in Cannes.Modern film makers
can learn a lot from the subjecting of life to traditions
of documentary realism in formerly taboo areas.
Everything takes place almost in real time hence making the filmic record more precious and shocking.

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paolo maranini said...

Posted on Apr 12 2008 21:28 Except perhaps some movie of the Dardennes brothers this is one of the best films I have ever seen. It's not merely a film about abortion but something much more relevant: the need to face horror in some dramatic decisions of our life. The conclusion of Mungiu's movie "let's not talk about this any more in our life". (Otilia to her friend in the cafeteria) is a perfect expression of what we have to stand.

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