4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

I was grateful to see this much-praised Romanian film -- winner of the top prize at Cannes -- on IFC’s On Demand option, while it is still playing in select metropolitan theaters. But the image quality was sub-DVD and a far cry from HD. Nonetheless, I got to see the film that “everyone” is talking about. And Cristian Mungiu’s film -- like Cristi Puiu’s recent Death of Mr. Lazarescu -- suggests that Romania might be the happenin’ place in world cinema these days, with a new iteration of neorealism, in which documentary observation is overlaid with literary and cinematic tropes, in a way that sets critics to salivating. So this film depicts the harsh reality of an illegal abortion in 1987, just two years before the overthrow of Ceausescu, but it is also a noir-ish thriller, with two girls instead of two guys, facing down the system and its evil spawn, doing what needs to be done. The action takes place over one day and night, but the title implicitly gives the age of the fetus. The urge to find out what happens next meets with some visceral shocks, while some scenes are supremely suspenseful. And the film is held together by the great performance of Anamaria Marinca as the friend indeed, who guides her hapless roommate through the ordeal, toward a greater ordeal of her own. It’s well worth seeing, but I wasn’t as blown away as many commentators, less inclined perhaps to the grim and gritty, which this undeniably is. So here’s another critical stampede that I find hard to join, but I will go this far -- this film would likely reveal more and seem better on a second viewing. You should give it a chance, and I’ll give it another sometime. (2008, IFC/OD, n.) *7* (MC-99.)

I am almost too embarrassed by my tech illiteracy to point it out, but you may have noticed I finally figured out the simple process to make my notation of Metacritic rating a link to the relevant Metacritic page. So from now on, please click on MC-number to get more info on the film, read reviews, and compare other critical reactions to my own.