Putting aside the pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy, 4 Weeks is intensely focused on the struggles of Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) as they navigate matters of legality and security to secure for Gabita an abortion. A man named Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) has been hired to perform the operation, but all his conditions can’t be met by the girls due to varying circumstances, which is highly dangerous for him given it’s a lengthy jail sentence for the caught abortionist. Otilia is also sacrificing a lot by helping her friend, but there’s clear tension between her and Gabita, as Gabita seems nearly a passive participant in securing her own abortion.
Writer/director Cristian Mungiu creates palpable tension thank to the period paranoia reinforced by the script. Every second outside the relative safety of the hotel room is unnerving and even then there’s a doubt as to the safety in the hotel room. The shadows in the streets at night really creep up on you, an affect achieved through Mungiu’s minimal use of lighting. And by minimal, you might as well say non-existent; which rolls nicely into the filmmaker’s natural and realistic look of the film. It serves the story well, as Otilia and Gabita could as well be any pair of young women in 1987 Romania; in fact, the story is based on the real-life account of an acquaintance of Mungiu’s.
The two main actresses are very good; you can hardly tell they’re performers because thankfully we’re spared the heavy dramatics. Marinca and Vasiliu are both very matter of fact - this is something they have to get done - almost as if they’re on a mission. That may sound horrible, or at the very least in bad taste, but this is the state of the time and place they live in: precision, one slip up and they’re both in big trouble. It’s worth reinforcing that this film is entirely non-political, much like the acclaimed Vera Drake, which demonstrates in vivid emotional and technical detail what life is like when there is no choice. The things these women have to do in order to secure what is essentially a medical procedure are galling.
The film’s very focused and linear narrative forces one’s attention as the cinema vérité-style fills you with dread and doubt. Will they get caught? Will the hotel staff find out? Is the creepy Bebe gone for good? The possibilities are endlessly paranoid and probably quite reflective of the circumstances. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days isn’t so much a story about abortion as it is a story about options and what life is like when you have so few and are forced by fate to roll a hard six. The power of Mungiu’s film is reflected in the fact that when the credits rolled, no one got up from their seats immediately. Now that’s storytelling gravitas.
There have been several interesting movies coming out of former Eastern block countries in the last few years, particularly Romania. They tell startling and heartbreakingly human stories in a manner of fact matter that sheds light on what life was like for the little people in the waning days of European Communism. Last year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, The Lives of Others, was a good example of this, but perhaps better is 4 Weeks, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a brilliantly stark look at the tangled web of connections, politics and dirty dealers one had to steer in order to procure a simple abortion.
Putting aside the pro-choice/pro-life dichotomy, 4 Weeks is intensely focused on the struggles of Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) as they navigate matters of legality and security to secure for Gabita an abortion. A man named Bebe (Vlad Ivanov) has been hired to perform the operation, but all his conditions can’t be met by the girls due to varying circumstances, which is highly dangerous for him given it’s a lengthy jail sentence for the caught abortionist. Otilia is also sacrificing a lot by helping her friend, but there’s clear tension between her and Gabita, as Gabita seems nearly a passive participant in securing her own abortion.
Writer/director Cristian Mungiu creates palpable tension thank to the period paranoia reinforced by the script. Every second outside the relative safety of the hotel room is unnerving and even then there’s a doubt as to the safety in the hotel room. The shadows in the streets at night really creep up on you, an affect achieved through Mungiu’s minimal use of lighting. And by minimal, you might as well say non-existent; which rolls nicely into the filmmaker’s natural and realistic look of the film. It serves the story well, as Otilia and Gabita could as well be any pair of young women in 1987 Romania; in fact, the story is based on the real-life account of an acquaintance of Mungiu’s.
The two main actresses are very good; you can hardly tell they’re performers because thankfully we’re spared the heavy dramatics. Marinca and Vasiliu are both very matter of fact - this is something they have to get done - almost as if they’re on a mission. That may sound horrible, or at the very least in bad taste, but this is the state of the time and place they live in: precision, one slip up and they’re both in big trouble. It’s worth reinforcing that this film is entirely non-political, much like the acclaimed Vera Drake, which demonstrates in vivid emotional and technical detail what life is like when there is no choice. The things these women have to do in order to secure what is essentially a medical procedure are galling.
The film’s very focused and linear narrative forces one’s attention as the cinema vérité-style fills you with dread and doubt. Will they get caught? Will the hotel staff find out? Is the creepy Bebe gone for good? The possibilities are endlessly paranoid and probably quite reflective of the circumstances. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days isn’t so much a story about abortion as it is a story about options and what life is like when you have so few and are forced by fate to roll a hard six. The power of Mungiu’s film is reflected in the fact that when the credits rolled, no one got up from their seats immediately. Now that’s storytelling gravitas.
