Several reviewers of "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" have referred to it as a kind of horror film. They are not completely off-base.
Though "4 Months" does not exactly constitute the average scary thriller, certain elements of the film?which focuses on the struggles of getting an abortion in communist Romania?are without question provocative and extremely unsettling.
"4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" was written, produced and directed by Cristian Mungi. Mungi constructs an artistic and authentic setting of 1980s Communist Romania. The script is convincing and certain lines of dialogue are guaranteed to remain with the viewer forever.
"4 Months" was the recipient of the Palme d'Or and FIPRESCI Awards from the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the Hollywood World Award for Best Film, and the Best European Film at the European Film Awards, among others. Its 96 percent rating on popular online review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com attests to its widespread critical acclaim. The components that together make up "4 Months" are brilliant and worthy of such praise and recognition.
Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu give intense and evocative performances and are supported by a compelling cast, which includes Vlad Ivanov and Alexandru Potocean.
The plot of the film is where the material becomes somewhat shaky, at least in terms of mass appeal. To use the blunt, gritty style that so characterizes "4 Months," the movie, in short, recounts the experience of two college roommates who must seek an abortion in a time and place where abortions were not only shameful but illegal and punishable by five to 10 years in jail.
In order to obtain an abortion for Vasiliu's character, Gabita, she and Marinca's Otilia seek the black market service of Potocean's corrupt "Dr. Bebe." At the same time, they struggle to keep their activities hidden, particularly from Otilia's boyfriend, Potocean's Adi.
Mungi deals with such the emotional and controversial material with a harsh, tell-it-like-it-is sense of realism. In a way, it is the small details of the movie that combine to make it so largely effective.
The background scenes make possible the foreground; at one point, an unnamed woman beats the dust out of a carpet while Otilia and Bebe discuss the terms of their agreement. As Otilia then climbs into Bebe's car, she does not close the door strongly enough; he asks her to try again, as the lock is stuck.
The entire abortive process takes place on the second floor of a hotel, directly above the first floor's wedding celebration. Mungi's well-crafted interplay of the accepted everyday with his exposure of the less picturesque underground is poignant, and serves only to intensify the already powerful storylines surrounding Gabita and Otilia's characters.
However, some might question the motive behind these storylines. Parts of "4 Months" are indisputably horrific; the situations and images that accompany Gabita and Otilia are often grotesque.
Is Mungi's objective to proclaim the horrors of abortion? The film is hardly so single-minded. It is more likely that in sharing the Gabita and Otilia's story?a story Mungi cites as part of the "Memories from the Golden Age" of Romanian Communism?Mungi hopes to demonstrate to the world the gruesome reality once faced not by one or two characters, but by an entire nation of oppressed women and men alike.
"4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," though rich in its own right, is additionally rife with stories untold, with words unspoken. Mungi invites inquiry into the previously unexplored with this film; he wants his audience to listen, and he wants the voices of his characters and the real characters they represent to finally be heard.