The Best Preemptive Film of 2008

This week, we look at abortion in the films of 2007, with two short reviews, and a large think piece about the theme of abortion in 2007. Here's the first:




4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)

The third Romanian to be heralded in the US in as many years, Cristian Mungiu’s second feature may be the best yet. It did not get officially released in America until late January, yet it was one of the most talked-about films of 2007. Why? Firstly, it was Romania’s official selection for the Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination process (and it was controversially not one of that award's finalists). Secondly, it played for a week in Los Angeles in late December to qualify for the general Oscar nominations. Finally, for all the above reasons, many critics, critics organizations, and critics’ polls have been including it in their best-of-2007 considerations. So, I am compromising: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is the best preemptive film of 2008. (P.S. It also came out of nowhere to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last May.)

Like Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Corneliu Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest before it, 4 Months is a triumph of temporal elasticity, terse narrative economy, and political subtext. Set in 1987, two years before the collapse of communism in Romania, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) has to arrange an abortion for her friend Gabita (Lara Vasiliu). Both are in college, and abortion is illegal. But it must be done, and over the course of one night, the claustrophobic terror of such an experience is suffocating. Mungiu employs harsh light and long, handheld takes to expand time and present their ordeal quite starkly. Time eventually becomes an extension of Otilia’s psyche, as she is unsure of when the nightmare will end. And what a deft choice to focus not on the patient, but on her friend who must make sure everything happens correctly. From arranging the hotel to bargaining with the doctor (bargaining which includes sexual debasement) to dealing with her boyfriend’s insufferable family (easily the funniest scene in the movie) to both chastising and comforting Gabita, Otilia must accomplish all and be rewarded nothing. The film does have its political trappings, but this is more a story about how friends must do everything for each other, even if it potentially destroys their bond. The final moments, composed in an unblinking two-shot with Otilia and Gabita in silence at dinner, suggests a great deal of uncertainty as well as relief about what the future holds for the both of them.