Women Talking
Directed by Sarah Polley6.990%80%6.8
The women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith. Though the backstory, we see a community of women come together to figure out how they might move forward together to build a better world for themselves and their children. Stay and fight or leave. They will not do nothing.
- jackmeatNovember 25, 2025My quick rating - 6.4/10. Last #Oscars2023 nominee for me to catch before the show. Avatar The Way of Water isn't available quite yet. I will say upfront, I have no idea what this is even about, and obviously have not read the book, so I am going in completely blind. I did a quick bit of reading to enlighten myself on the subject since the conversations seemed a bit too "real" to me. Took no time to find this: "The film is a striking interpretation of a novel that is loosely based on a horrifying true story about women in a Mennonite colony who were raped persistently by the men in their community while they slept, attacks the colonists initially blamed on Satan or hallucination."(Time.com) Knowing that, it makes the story that much more important to see, but it doesn't make the movie any more exciting. I don't need action all the time, but this is mostly just repetitive conversation. The incredibly well-cast group of women must decide if they should live with it, fight the men, or just up and leave. And that should be the main premise and move on from there, but instead, this constant question is asked over and over. It is more split into two groups since you have the elder women led by Frances McDormand and the more affected women, mainly being Rooney Mara. The younger group is the one being attacked, but their reactions always seemed like they read it in a book or someone told them about it. I never got that believable feeling that it happened to them, which I found distracting from the point of the flick. Still, the dynamic between the whole group is probably one of the best cast interactions you will see and is by far the highlight here. Just the pacing is monotonous, and even though it wasn't overblown at 104 minutes, it is still a long haul to sit through with so little happening. The filter used to film this one makes it feel even more depressing than it already was. Not my cup of tea for Best Picture, but still an important piece of a history lesson.
- Rowan KrzysiakFebruary 2, 2025A stagey drama about the abuse of women in a small religious colony in the US. The affected group spends the film deciding what action to take as a result. It presents a few intriguing character interactions and some interesting dilemmas that could be applied broadly to society as a whole. Not too bad.
- Kevin WardJuly 4, 2025Women Talking is a thought-provoking film that showcases powerful performances from Jessie Buckley, Clare Foy, Rooney Mara, et al. Themes of oppression, trauma, healing, sisterhood, empowerment, justice and resistance are explored conversationally with each actress masterfully conveying the depth of their characters' emotions and struggles. The performances are raw and honest, but the dialogue on occasion had a tendency to feel contrived and the presentation rather stagy. So even though the film is based on true events, the theatrical nature had the effect of muting some of emotion out of the experience for me. So even though I didn’t love Women Talking necessarily as the emotionally moving narrative feature I was expecting, it still serves as a compelling conversation piece worthy of checking out for the stellar cast and performances.
Watch Women Talking Videos
Women Talking Trivia
Women Talking was released on December 23, 2022.
Women Talking was directed by Sarah Polley.
Women Talking has a runtime of 1h 44m.
Women Talking was produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Frances McDormand.
The women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith. Though the backstory, we see a community of women come together to figure out how they might move forward together to build a better world for themselves and their children. Stay and fight or leave. They will not do nothing.
The key characters in Women Talking are Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley).
Women Talking is rated PG-13.
Women Talking is a Drama film.
Women Talking has an audience rating of 8 out of 10.
Women Talking had a budget of $20M.
Women Talking has made $7.6M at the box office.