RasoirJ on Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days

Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days (2008) ****
A young woman in Ceaucescu’s Romania during the last years of Communist rule seeks an abortion and things do not go well. Hard to imagine a less appealing story, but this is a film whose great reviews are merited.

Writer-director Cristian Mungiu begins in near-documentary style. Two college students, both seeming innocents, have to deal with an impossible pregnancy in a society where abortion is a criminal offense. Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) is the girl in trouble, a dreamer and procrastinator, and she relies on Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), her far more practical roommate to handle things. It is clear that a certain savvy toughness is the minimum one needs. Just watch Otilia as she tries to get the key to a reserved hotel room and has to deal with one of those unmovable Iron Curtain desk clerks. We begin to understand what it means for a society to be so corrupt that every action is tainted with manipulation.

Mungiu is a truly gifted filmmaker who can convey an entire set of social relations in five minutes of dialogue. When Otilia meets her boy friend, we grasp instantly their can’t-kept-hands-off passion, yet also surmise the difficulties in store for their relationship. Another gem is the scene where Otilia gets coerced into attending her boyfriend’s mother’s birthday. It’s a devastating mini-portrait of the gaping class divisions in this “classless” society. The table talk rings true and terrible, and we understand why it suffocates Otilia.

Mungiu gets the best out of all his actors; in fact, the cast never seems to be acting at all. And every relationship is more complex than it appears. Vlad Ivanov as Bebe, the icy abortionist, is about as big a creep as you’ll see on screen, but he’s also a credible human being, not a cardboard villain. And even sweet little Gabita – is she a feckless victim or herself a passive-aggressive manipulator of her friend Otilia? To the movie’s credit, you’ll debate this point long afterwards with your friends.