Review of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) by Phil B — 11 Apr 2010

Cristian Mungiu breaks the fourth wall in his 2007 picture: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The communist setting is pushed into the background by the more naturally provocative subject of abortion. However your ideology is your choice and Mungiu doesn't try to preach what he feels is right or wrong but rather show you the experience of abortion complicated by its illegality in 80's Romania. The story is presented in a very real manner from the static and long takes to the fact that there is no soundtrack, we are simply there, unnoticed. The feeling was so genuine that after the silent rolling of the credits my life carried on as if "4 Months..." was an event preceding the present rather than just a film.

A slow and gripping film that holds on its own without the frills of the big budget movie.