BEFORE: Another day, another movie watched, another screening event managed. Yesterday was a special screening of two episodes of a new Hulu show called "Never Let Him Go", I guess the first two episodes are free, then you have to pay for the rest. That's a classic scam to get you to sign up for their streaming service, just to find out what happened to the missing teen. Watch out for that, umm, unless you already have a Hulu subscription. And our house staff had to deal with a very fussy caterer who acted like HE was running the event, not us, I think he just liked to boss people around. We had to move a whole bunch of sodas and waters up from the basement, then he decided that maybe half of the sodas and waters should stay in the fridge, so we had to lug them back down. Then, guess what, we had to carry them up the stairs again when they started running out. By the time I got home, I was exhausted - I just wanted to grab a bowl of coffee mocha chip ice cream and settle down to watch a relaxing movie. Unfortunately, the next movie on my list was THIS one.
Claire Foy carries over from "Breathe". I also worked at a screening of this film, months ago - I think it played in the Tuesday night adult education film appreciation class, but you know, my memory's getting faulty, this could just have easily played at Tribeca or in another festival at the theater, who the hell remembers? I just remember I had to manage the screening and I couldn't watch it - not that I even really wanted to.
THE PLOT: Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.
AFTER: Yeah, I have a feeling I'm going to get in trouble tonight with my review - I can't really make fun of this movie without running afoul of the #meToo movement, or coming across as anti-feminist, which I am not, I do think equality issues are very important. I also have a lot of questions about the real event that inspired this movie, but I feel like this movie has a particular point of view ("Men are pigs", and I'm not disagreeing with that...) and if I ask any questions about the actions of the men depicted here, try to understand what happened, that maybe comes a little too close to justifying their actions, and I sure don't want to do that.
Ugh, I'm going to try to tread lightly here, and hope for the best - I'm bound to offend someone or everyone with my comments, that's probably a given. There is a reason, I think, why the film only shows the point of view of the women in this Mennonite community - their views and debates ARE important, of course, because we still have a long way to go to make up for thousands of years of oppression and society treating women like second-class citizens, or worse, as property. So sure, let's make the whole film about women talking about what happened, and what they should do next, it just makes sense, but also to investigate the men's reasons for their actions is an obvious non-starter, and again, it comes a bit too close to explaining or justifying their actions, also off the table.
And I'm not an expert on Mennonites, either - are they like the Amish? I'm sure there's some fundamental difference, like one group can't use electricity or machinery, and the other can only use them on any day that isn't the Sabbath, or something like that? Or are they more like Mormons, where the men can have multiple wives and they all wear magic underwear? (Look it up...). I'll have to investigate this further - but here's what we DO know. In the real-world events that inspired this movie, some of the male members of a Mennonite sect in Bolivia gassed some of the women with tranquilizer gas meant to be used on cows, and raped them while they were unconscious. Terrible actions, by any measure, and again, I have questions, but I'm not going to ask them here, because that wouldn't be proper. (Like, did they TRY asking the women out to dinner and a movie? Just wondering...oh, right, they can't watch movies.)
OK, so Mennonites are the ones who favor dressing plainly, living without certain elements of modern technology, and a hardcore belief in the Anabaptist teachings developed during the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Right, Amish Lite - less filling, tastes great. And it seems there's an emphasis placed on hard work, family and a somewhat, umm, conservative attitude? Also, marrying within one's religion, pacificism and an emphasis on "obeying Christ" as they interpret the words of the Bible, and Lord knows there are many different interpretations.
The film concerns the women having a meeting to determine their next action, after the non-raping menfolk have gone to town to bail out the rapists, and the men have told the women to use these two days to forgive their rapists, and if they are unable to do so, they will not be allowed to enter the kingdom of Heaven when they die. Funny thing, though, it doesn't seem like the rapists themselves are being told the same thing - like shouldn't the rapists have to do some penance and maybe apologize, or do they still get to enter Heaven, no matter what they do? Seems like an obvious double standard here, but since the men get to make the rules, and the women don't know how to read or write, it seems pretty clear on which Mennonites are keeping the other Mennonites down.
So the women meet to vote, should they stay and do nothing (pacificism, submissiveness) or should they stay and fight (umm, fight who, the rapists or the men bailing out the rapists?) or should they just leave? Don't worry, if you miss any of the finer points of their argument, they're going to repeat them a few times, and go around and around a few more before the movie is over. It's very tedious, in addition to the subject matter being a real bummer. BUT since it's a true story, it probably should be told, because this sort of thing really should not be allowed to go unchecked.
If I've got a NITPICK POINT, it's that the 2010 census just, umm, well, it didn't work this way - for a long time, the census, at least in the U.S., has been a form that you fill out, or in underserved neighborhoods, the census taker may come and knock on your door. But I'm fairly sure that a car doesn't drive up, blasting "Daydream Believer" out of some speakers and an unseen man demands that everyone come out of the farmhouses and stand around to be counted. Nope, it just doesn't work that way, sorry. So why depict it like that?
Spoiler alert, the women finally land on leave, after like a two-day debate. Really? It took them two days to get to the most obvious solution to their problems? Just saying. But then they have to decide what to do with their young sons, take them along or leave them behind. Well, the problem with sons is that they grow up and become men, and so therefore before long, you're right back where you started, aren't you? So yeah, probably best to leave the sons behind and start up an all-female Mennonite colony somewhere else. Good luck with that.
I'm going to stop before I ask any more questions that might come too close to victim blaming, but I think maybe another root problem here - the main one being that men are pigs, of course - might have something to do with overly conservative women in a society with just a few too many rules in it? Just a theory, I've got nothing to really back it up. But "Law & Order: SVU" has kept telling me over the years that rape isn't about sex, it's about violence. So you then maybe have to wonder what turned some of these very religious men into violent criminals, right? But if I were to judge solely on entertainment value, I'm afraid there's just not much of that here.
There is a transgender character here, a man who goes by "Melvin" but probably had another name at birth, and this person is allowed to take care of the children in the colony, but also they haven't spoken, at least not since the incident. Maybe that's another NITPICK POINT, in a real Mennonite society I don't think they would be so accepting of a transgender man, someone who was once a woman. Right?
OK, I have to ask, because there's a stereotype about farmers and old jokes about people who live on farms - but why wouldn't the men just use the cow tranquilizers on the cows, and have sex with the cows? Wouldn't that have been, umm, easier, with fewer repercussions? Or would that have prevented them from someday entering the kingdom of heaven? Am I way off base here?
Also starring Rooney Mara (last seen in "Side Effects"), Jessie Buckley (last seen in "The Lost Daughter"), Judith Ivey (last seen in "Hello Again"), Ben Whishaw (last seen in "No Time to Die"), Frances McDormand (last seen in "City by the Sea"), Sheila McCarthy (last seen in "Pacific Heights"), Michelle McLeod (last seen in "My Spy"), Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil, August Winter, Kira Guloien, Shayla Brown, Emily Mitchell, Vivien Endicott Douglas, Lochlan Ray Miller, Nathaniel McParland, Eli Ham, Will Bowes, Marcus Craig.
RATING: 3 out of 10 lists of pros and cons
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