4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days brings this Romanian filmmaker and his country to the forefront of world cinema not unlike the way that Mexican cinema had a spotlight shone on it with the work of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo Del Toro in recent years. Mungiu’s fascinating film, which he wrote and directed, comes a year after Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu found critical success on the global screen. Both films share the same excellent cinematographer, Oleg Mutu, and also share the immediacy of action unfolding before you. You feel as if you’re there, watching the story as it happens—almost as if in a documentary.

The story we watch unfold is a day in the life of two college students, Otilia (the super impressive Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), as the former helps her friend obtain an underground abortion in 1987. Under the final days of the repressive Ceausescu Communist regime, abortion in Romania was still illegal. The title of the film refers to the amount of time Gabita has waited to abort, which is dangerously late in her pregnancy. The you-are-there quality is sparked by camera work and action that give the air of much of the film a thriller-like quality, especially in the second half. Best not to go over all of the plot points, but I’d like to single out several set pieces:

—the incredible scene with the abortionist Mr. Bebe (he’s a menacing thug and sexual predator) and what transpires in the hotel room the women have rented for the abortion

—the scene where Otilia goes to her boyfriend's parents’ apartment to celebrate his mother’s birthday, leaving Gabita back in the rented room. It’s the birthday party from hell for Otilia with an added level of anxiety about how Gabita is doing while she’s away

—an outdoor scene where Otilia has a horrible errand to take care of that is both scary and sad

Mungiu says the story is based largely on a real-life incident he had heard about fifteen years earlier. It’s also reported to be part of a series of films from Mungiu under the umbrella title Tales of the Golden Age. His direction for this film is assured and compelling, his dialogue is crisp and real, and the film’s actors are top-notch. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; was named one of NBR’s top five foreign films of the year; was New York Times critic A.O. Scott’s top film of the year…but sadly it failed to make the short list for Foreign-Language Films for the Academy Awards.

                                                              Jim Baldassare