Naomi Martin

A couple of thoughts after watching this film on a snowy January evening by candlelight and musing on the film overnight. Before I read through other reviews, I, too, had the thought that this story would be well given to a stage play. The dialog and small actions between characters carries this story and thus would be a haunting play if staged well. Thinking of this as a play or a dialog may be better than thinking of "Women Talking" as a film. Rooney Mara is not an actress I have seen in much- I love Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy and have seen a good deal of their work, but thought Mara's tender and very natural feeling performance as Ona and her dialog with Whishaw's August the keystone to this story. Claire Foy of course wonderful and she carries the Canadian accent most convincingly. I did not care for the very dark, almost monochromatic color grading of Women Talking. While this choice of course makes 'obvious' sense due to the subject nature and the ascetic nature of the film, I think that having the full, rich summery colors of the farmland contrasted with the women's old-world dress and the period-film like setting would have been a lush and beautiful contrast. I was thinking of the films of Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, Tree of Life) and how he uses rich colors and beautiful sunlight to highland both beautiful and terrible aspects of human nature and behavior. I think that would have made this film better for me. Altogether, a most worthy watch with beautiful performances.

Like others, this series touched me and I appreciated the subtlety of the art direction and story lines. Sean Bean's performance is truly outstanding and he carries weight and pathos in every episode. My heart broke for John Marlott throughout the series. The first 3 or 4 episodes take their time to build up, so this is a show that defintely requires some patience... so worth it! The writing remained strong, so much so that even with so much tension between the men and one of the female leads in the second series there was not a single sex scene as it was not needed. Super dark feel to the sets and scenes, with dialogue centered around the God / man and heaven / hell dichotomies. I was sorry to watch the last episode. Also, I was not expecting to love Esther Rose's character so much. What a refreshing change to have a female character with her own story arc and agency over her own mind and heart.