4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

Review By: Brian DePasquale
BrianDePasquale @TheCinemaSource.com

The story sounds simple. Gabita, a college student in 1980's Romania, is pregnant and wants to get an abortion. Her roommate, Otilia, aids her friend in preparations to meet up with a man who has agreed to do the illegal act. The process is a dangerous situation for all parties involved in a country with zero tolerance.

The synopsis is misleading. This is not a lifetime movie. This is not pro-choice or pro-life propaganda. What makes Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days something of a masterpiece is how he is able to manipulate a topic that is larger than life and make it decidedly human. Every choice made is a conscience one, the result of a string of brilliantly imagined ideas. The subject matter and how it is managed is tragic, but the experience of watching how that tragedy is constructed is exhilarating. Few films have left a stronger impact.

The most important decision Mungiu makes, the catalyst for most of his film's genius, is making Otilia the main character. By building the foundation of story around the friend rather than the woman in labor, Mungiu is able to put the weight of the film's plot on her shoulders. Despite the presence of Gabita's abortion halfway through the film, the story is more interested in the downfall of Otilia's innocence than about the loss of physical life. Ironically, the impact of the incident casts more psychological horror on Otilia than Gabita.

In essence, Gabita is not a sympathetic character at all. The abortionist gives her strict instructions about how to prepare. As the first act of the film unravels we see how poorly she follows his demands. He wanted to meet with her before the procedure to feel her out. She has Otilia go for her instead. Gabita was told to get a hotel room in a particular place that would be safer than all other locations. Gabita sends Otilia on short notice and the hotel has no vacancies. The man wants a significant sum of money, but she only gives him a small fraction of that number. She even lies about how far along her pregnancy is so he will not say no to her.

The idea of making a film about a woman having an abortion and making her the secondary character is unfathomable. What could the film possibly be trying to say? There is no decision a woman could make that would be more difficult than the one proposed here. By the very nature of the situation, the audience has to feel empathy for the anguish felt. Yet the focus of this