Fight for the right body – Newspaper Kommersant No. 201 (7402) of 10/28/2022

Phyllis Naj’s film “Call Jane” is released, dedicated to the struggle of American women for the legalization of abortion in the 1960s and 1970s. The authors present a complex and painful topic in an easy way, and Julia Shagelman does not consider this approach to be a disadvantage.

Phyllis Naj opens with events familiar to viewers, such as Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago Seven (2020). August 1968, Chicago is engulfed in protests against the Vietnam War, brutally suppressed by the police and the National Guard. “The whole world is watching!” the demonstrators chant. In fact, the world, as usually happens in such cases, looks the other way, and even their own fellow citizens do not care about what is happening literally at their side. At the Drake Hotel, cordoned off by the police, a reception is held to mark the end of a legal conference, and only one woman in pearls and an evening dress looks out into the street to realize what has happened. She is impressed that both the protesters and the cops are very young guys, but she quickly returns to her cozy little world.

This woman’s name is Joy Griffin (Elizabeth Banks), and she’s the perfect housewife, not even from the 1960s, but from the serene, patriarchal 1950s. A beautiful blonde, happily pregnant with her second child, with a suburban home, a caring lawyer husband (Chris Messina), a loving teenage daughter (Gracie Samuel) and a girlfriend (Kate Mara) who you can have a martini or two at lunch with and drink to your heart’s content. gossip. However, it cannot be said that Joy is completely stuck in the 1950s: she cooks meatloaf to the music of The Velvet Underground, and in the matrimonial bed she does not hesitate to express her desires aloud.

A prosperous existence is threatened when it turns out that Joy’s pregnancy could be life-threatening. The husband falls into a stupor from such news, but the woman is determined and has no doubt that the pregnancy must be terminated. However, abortion is prohibited by law, and her fate must be decided by a council of male doctors. They look past Joy, do not listen to her arguments and vote unanimously against the abortion. After going through other options (getting a certificate of insanity from two psychiatrists or “accidentally” falling down the stairs), the heroine stumbles upon an ad: “Pregnant? Alarmed? Call Jane!

It turns out that “Jane” is not one woman, but a whole team (really existed in reality). The main thing in it is the energetic feminist Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), but the composition is motley, from a black activist (Wunmi Mossaku) to a Catholic nun (Aida Turturro), and everyone is united by the desire to help women and at the same time not judge them for their choice. It costs a lot: a young doctor with a Beatle haircut (Corey Michael Smith) is not distinguished by a penchant for charity and charges $ 600 for a “procedure”. After passing it, Joy dreams of leaving everything behind, but is drawn into the activities of the committee and unexpectedly finds her true destiny in it.

To the topic of abortion, which, alas, remains a hot topic (only this summer, the US Constitutional Court overturned the historic decision in the Roe v. anguish and frank confession. There is even a place for humor in their picture: for example, in scenes where Virginia convinces Dr. Dean to reduce prices through a drunken game of stripping, or Joy herself learns to perform a “procedure” by scraping pumpkins and filling all surfaces in the house with pumpkin pies.

At the same time, the authors do not turn away from details that may seem unpleasant to someone. During Joy’s abortion, we see only her face, all medical details are only voiced by the doctor’s voice, but this does not make the scene less impressive. When the committee staff discuss the candidacies of those whom they can and cannot help, behind each card with a name and age someone’s difficult fate is revealed: a minor girl, a victim of rape, a mother of many children who does not have the means for another child, a woman who falls ill cancer. The freedom to manage one’s own body and health concerns absolutely everyone, reminds the film, although it softens the bitter pill of common sense with a spoonful of sugar: a beautiful picture with retro outfits and a soundtrack of pop hits.