What She Did For Love

(this post contains info about the cited film that might be best read after seeing it)

So I watched "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" last night cause, well, nothing caps off a bitch of a day, one of those that just gets worse when you get home, like a Romanian movie about late term abortion. Quips aside, it was actually just the right thing-one of those yeah, I thought I had troubles till I watched this. And despite it's absolutely brutal subject matter (movies set in Communist days do tend to the brutal) I actually found its portrayal of friendship uplifting. Anybody who thinks that "Sex and the City" is about women's friendship really needs to see "4 Months". It's not about shoes or guys, no, it's about helping your friend get an illegal abortion when that involves bribery, alienating your boyfriend, doing the abortionist cause you're short of cash and disposing of the fetus once it's all over. Yeah, that's a friend.

One particular scene keeps replaying in my mind. The girls are negotiating with the abortionist in their hotel room and they have lost any high ground or creditability by completely mucking up all the arrangements. Because they are short of the necessary cash it's agreed that Otilia (the friend) will have sex with the guy to make up the difference. As Gabita (the pregnant one) scurries to the bathroom we see Otilia grimly, matter of factly taking off her shoes and pants. Then we cut to Gabita sitting in the bright blue hotel bathroom nervously smoking with the tap turned on to muffle the noise from the other room. Then Otilia bursts in and makes a beeline for the tub. Her top still on (it wasn't about love or even lust after all, just a business transaction) she climbs in as Gabita exits. We the viewer see only her from the back and as she is furiously cleaning herself we see her bloody right hand appear above the rim of the tub. The red is very bright in the bright blue bathroom light and with that shot everything we need to know about Otilia-her strength and what she is prepared to do for her friend (i.e. everything)-is shown to us. All screenwriters and directors should be made to watch that scene, especially those that tend to overwriting. As Hemingway said about writing, "all you need is one true sentence" in film, all you need is one true scene.