Dir: Cristian Mungiu, 2007
Score on Metacritic: 97, Rank (all-time highest scoring): 5
Gripping and real.College student Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) must help her pregnant friend Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) obtain an illegal abortion during the tail end of Romania's communist dictatorship. Gabita has enlisted the help of shady Domnul Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), with a few white lies. The women find obstacles every step of the way — from a hotel reservation gone missing to the realization that the cost is higher than either one was prepared to pay — and it is up to Otilia to navigate around them, because Gabita is a hot mess. Risks involve not only potential medical complications for Gabita, but jail time for the women and anyone who aids them.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is tense, stark and horrifying. It is a small movie, densely packed with big themes. The visuals are crisp, bare and striking, with the camera often lingering on a single shot for what feels like minutes.
One of the most amazing things about this film is the light it sheds on the way people living under harsh dictatorships band together to form relationships that ace even the most serious tests of friendship. Another is how accurately it portrays the little things, like the everyday occurrence of buying black market cigarettes from a friend because they weren't available due to heavy rationing. It's a great reminder that not everything during the time was about horrid life or death extremes.
It's not a movie that will appeal to everyone, but if you can stomach it, it's definitely worth the watch. It's just great, unapologetic storytelling. And it'll probably be food for thought.
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