The Greatest Trick

Abortion is a hot topic in the cinema at present, perhaps on account of the 35th anniversary of the Roe/Wade landmark case that made abortion legal in the US. At any rate a number of recent releases, including the Oscar winning Juno, have all tackled the issue, putting it centre stage in the public consciousness.

The critically praised 4 months 3 weeks 2 days is in many respects the anti-Juno; a harsh, uncompromising picture set in Romania under Ceausescu during the late 1980’s, where abortion is illegal and a student and her friend have to go to extreme measures to procure a backstreet termination. Their plan is complicated by an increasingly horrific turn of events (including rape), and the ever present threat of discovery by the authorities.

This is gripping, grisly and utterly depressing stuff. Yet from a cinematic perspective, there is much to praise. It’s well acted by the leads. Laura Vasiliu is convincingly timid and terrified as Gabita, the pregnant girl. Anamaria Marinca plays her friend Otilia, a much stronger character who is prepared to go to surprising and disturbing lengths to help Gabita. Alexandru Potocean is excellent as Otilia’s bewildered boyfriend Adi, a character I sympathised with at first, but who ultimately emerges as a symbol of the irresponsible and immoral men that cause these girls to go to such extremes. Finally, Vlad Ivanov is chilling as Bebe, the abortionist who demands a far greater price than money for his services.

Cristian Mungiu’s shakycam documentary style direction and Oleg Mutu’s drab, muted cinematography convey the depressingly squalor of Ceausescu Romania in appropriately grim fashion. Mungiu’s screenplay is well judged and gripping, but as a Christian I obviously disagree with his strongly argued case for abortion within a legal framework.

Yet ironically, although his argument is highly persuasive to some, there is one shot that provoked ire among those critics that praised its pro-abortion message. The shot they took exception to, claiming it was gratuitous, was that of the aborted baby with all its recognisable human features. To my mind, this single shot produces a powerful counter argument that undermines the message of the entire film: Whether through grim and nasty backstreet abortion or through clean legal termination, the result of abortion is always the same: a dead child. Therefore abortion, whatever the circumstances, is murder. Perhaps it was this argument the critics took exception to, and why they would prefer the audience not to see the dead baby. After reading interviews with Cristian Mungiu, it is clear he didn’t intend to make a pro-life statement in that shot, yet the anguish and emotion it evokes in the audience destroys the credibility of his pro-abortion argument.

At any rate, given its unremitting bleakness nothing will ever induce me to watch 4 months 3 weeks 2 days again, regardless of its undoubted cinematic merits. That it’s pro-abortion, spares you nothing, and contains swearing and nudity will no doubt be enough to put most of you off, but if you are curious, don’t eat anything beforehand. Actually, you probably won’t want to eat anything afterwards either.

All in all, a monumentally miserable experience.

Simon Dillon, March 2008.