Festival breakout Women Talking gets an emotional, somber first trailer

Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival last month, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking seemed poised to compete with the other major #MeToo-inspired drama, She Said, also set to come out this year (and also produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B). However, Women Talking has already begun differentiating itself.

Based on Miriam Toews’ bestseller, Women Talking follows the experiences of several women in an isolated Mennonite community. The victims of numerous sexual crimes perpetrated by the men in their community, the women meet to decide what to do: remain quiet, fight back, or leave.

The movie will take a very different approach to sexual assault. “Though the backstory behind the events in Women Talking is violent, the film is not,” Polley said. “We never see the violence that the women have experienced. We see only short glimpses of the aftermath. Instead, we watch a community of women come together as they must decide, in a very short space of time, what their collective response will be.”

Polley assembled a formidable cast for the film. It stars Rooney Mara, Clarie Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Academy Award-winner Frances McDormand. However, given the context of the trailer and the synopsis, it doesn’t sound like Ben Whishaw will be doing his Paddington thing in this one.

Women Talking was a favorite at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festivals. At TIFF, it took first runner-up for the festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award, a frequent predictor of Oscar frontrunners and winners, and at Telluride, Sarah Polley was one of the three Silver Medallion Tributes awarded this year.

Women Talking goes into limited release on December 2 and will open nationally on December 25.