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The film's title is as straight forward as anything else about
it. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a Romanian film that captured the Palme D'or at Cannes in 2007, failed
to get an academy award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and then quietly slipped into theaters in February where
it captured less than a million dollars in box office despite mostly rave reviews from American critics. I find the
films lack of success somewhat ironic since around the same time it was acquiring accolades American audiences were falling
in love with movies like Knocked Up and Juno which dealt with the same subject in a completely different way, that subject
being an unexpected pregnancy.
"Four Months", written and directed by
Cristian Mungiu is about an illegal abortion being obtained in 1987 when such a procedure was punishable by imprisonment in
communist Romania. The fact that the word is barely even uttered in the two American films both of which present situations
that could be argued abortion would be a logical choice shows how far American cinema will go to repress even the existence
of abortion from the multiplex and the relationship of our films to the realities of our lives.
Some brave filmmakers have dealt with it, Alexander Payne and Todd Solondz, turn the abortion debate into black farce
in Citizen Ruth and Palindromes and Tony Kaye delivers the full debate in blistering unnerving intensity in his documentary
Lake of Fire but all three of those films rely on manipulation and a provocateur's spirit. Mungiu is having none of
that in his film. As such he has probably created the only film that really cuts to the heart of the matter and shows
how illegal abortions force women into positions that make them ripe for exploitation.
While the character of Gabita is the young woman in need of an abortion it is her roommate Otilia who serves as our point
of view into the film. In fact, Gabita seems incredibly unlikable. She at times comes off lazy, selfish and outright
dense. This makes her much too clueless for motherhood but as the film continues and the abortionist Mr. Bebe unveils
his scheme to exploit these young women in their time of need we wonder why Otilia would help her friend at all, let alone
go to the lengths she does to help secure an abortion, an act that could net her three years in prison.
The answer comes in her relationship with her boyfriend and a painful dinner party at his parents house that she is forced
to attend about halfway through the movie. My favorite shot in the movie and perhaps one of my favorite in cinema comes
when Otilia is seated at the table with her boyfriend's pushy relatives and we are treated to a single shot of her attempting
to weather their backhanded comments and her feelings of being completely out of place.
This brilliant scene is followed by a second, in which Otilia confesses that she has been helping with an abortion.
When her boyfriend reacts with disapproval Otilia asks what he would do if they were in the same situation. It's here
that we are given the most forgotten of consequences when women are denied options. He suggests that they marry and
we've already seen substantial evidence that this relationship might not last another week let alone a lifetime. With
a child in the mix it is almost certain that three lives would be ruined.
The
style of the film is neo-realism and American audiences have rejected this unless there is also a giant monster attacking
New York City in the plot. This is too bad since this movie essentially does all the things those detractors of Juno
claim it did not do. When it comes out on video a double feature of the two films would be interesting though few fans
of Juno would likely have the stomach to handle Mungui's sad and brilliant masterpiece.
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