Review of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) by Ld P — 18 Oct 2009

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) Cristian Mungiu's powerful documentary-style drama was the rightful winner of the top prize (Palm D'Or) at Cannes 2007. The picture is set in 1987 in the waning days of communist rule under the dictator Ceausescu, whose repressive regime left the country in ruins.

We?re introduced to a pair of college students who share a room in a seedy, rundown dorm. The school, though, is no seedier or rundown than the city which surrounds it. Rust seems to be the only thing holding cars together.

Color appears to have been outlawed. Society for all practical purposes has broken down and black markets have sprung up to meet the most ordinary of needs. The roommates are Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) and Otilia (Anamaria Marinca).

They are an odd couple. Otilia is outgoing, no nonsense and resourceful. Gabita, on the other hand is scatterbrained and accustomed to letting others clean up her messes. She is also pregnant. Abortions were illegal in Romania at the time.

So the rest of the movie is about a 24 hour time period where they make preparation for this act in a local motel (if they can find a room). As Otilia goes to further and further lengths for Gabita, and as her day becomes thankless in ways almost impossible to comprehend, she becomes purified.

You may approach the film with a wariness borne of hype, but by the dinner-party scene that Mungiu uses as the story's center it's clear that this is something special, possibly great. Throughout the movie scene after scene you see the people trying to live under the repercussions of the oppressive communist regime.

This film is interesting in that it is filmed semi documentary style and the camera gaze at the actors with only one camera shot per scenes. Very realistic. Visuals are everything here; the film has no music, only words or silences.

"4 Months" is too rough, too complex to be read simply as a feminist manifesto or a pro-choice polemic. In one sense, the film functions as a thriller: Will Gabita survive? Will Otilia get caught? On a deeper level, though, it's about coming through physical and spiritual exhaustion to a nearly Zen-like understanding of one's place in the universe - to a disgust with people and the governments they create that mingles mysteriously with all-encompassing pity.

The film's theme of the lengths to which one will go for friendship is fascinating. Somehow "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" wasn't nominated for a foreign language film Academy Award.

It should have been-- though the nominated and winners were good films. A brilliant and haunting film! Anamaria Marinca's and Laura Vasiliu performances were simply phenomenal. This film is a masterpiece.

I don't think your average film goer will like this movie . This is Nota family movie. Five stars.