Women Talking
United Artists Releasing | Release Date: December 23, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 2, 2022
So what if it’s talky. Writer-director Sarah Polley’s vital film gathers together eight women—acted with heat and heart by a miraculous cast—to debate what to do about male sexual predators. Doing nothing is not an option in this unique and unforgettable landmark in the making. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 4, 2023
Despite the specificity of the setting and the performances, there is a universality to the story. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisDec 19, 2022
For a while, each of their characters seems trapped in a loop from which she can’t break free, unlike the beatific Mara. But the group’s seasoned elders, played by Ivey and McCarthy, are the characters that stay with you. The two veteran players’ understated performances beautifully ground the film with positive wisdom. Lots of words are said in Women Talking, but when these two speak, you perk up and listen. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 5, 2023
Women Talking is full of phenomenal acting by a group of actors at the top of their game. There are a lot of characters here, but even the most minor are given moments to shine. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 2, 2023
Though the subject matter is intense and shocking, the intuitively sensitive and subtle Polley teams with a brilliant ensemble cast to tell the story with grace and empathy and even some much-needed doses of earned humor. It’s a film you won’t soon forget. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellFeb 10, 2023
Polley is not especially subtle in her allegory, and nor does she need to be: the exceptionally well-made Women Talking gets to the point in its sheer, righteous invective. Read full review
100
EmpireBeth WebbFeb 6, 2023
A remarkable ensemble of performers unite for this combustible, timely chamber-piece that hails the return of Polley as an ambitious and empirical filmmaker. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 3, 2022
There's a deep vein of humor and humanity that Polley and her actors mine from the text, and something quietly mesmerizing in their meticulous world-building. Read full review
60
Film ThreatAlex SavelievNov 7, 2022
Polley attempts to tackle the issue from multiple angles – how male toxicity is passed down to helpless youth by their elders, for example – but ends up running in circles. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaDec 8, 2022
A harrowing tale rooted in real events, Women Talking takes a stage-like approach to its debate between victimized women in a commune, but imbues it with cinematic flourishes. It’s also one of the rare ensemble movies where every single performance makes it worth watching. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 3, 2022
Hard as it might be to imagine, Women Talking is an upbeat and propulsive film cut with a sharp wit and a ready sense of humor, even if its characters are often laughing as hard as they wish they could cry. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 19, 2022
Women Talking reduces women to their words, as the title implies, a choice that is bold but limiting. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 3, 2022
What Polley achieves here is an artful, incisive distillation of Toews’ arguments, effectively if somewhat visibly engineered for clarity and brevity. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 8, 2022
Polley has taken a pointed, of-its-moment novel and turned it into an indictment and a plea for civil discourse in a call-to-arms moment. Read full review
100
ObserverEmily ZemlerDec 21, 2022
It would easy to call Women Talking a #MeToo movie, but it’s a lot more than that. These aren’t trendy conversations; they’re long-held struggles that people of all genders have faced for generations. Instead, Polley asks why people are forced to endure such horrific repression and violence because they are female. The question resonates far beyond the end of the film, although there is no quick answer. Read full review
100
Original-CinThom ErnstJan 2, 2023
Despite lacking the visual scope and timeline of Polley's earlier works like Take This Waltz, Away From Her, and Stories We Tell, Women Talking is her most accomplished film to date: An intimate portrayal of a group of people driven to the brink of rebellion lest they concede to defeat. Read full review
53
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 2, 2023
A movie like this shouldn’t be so ambivalent, much less so harsh on the eye. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 21, 2022
Without offering more than dialogue, Women Talking has difficulty sustaining itself for 104 minutes. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJan 2, 2023
Sarah Polley's trust in the material—and her actors—allows for the performances to flourish, and the performances drive the story along with the barrage of words. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 2, 2023
There’s a sensitivity in even the most grand-gesture flourishes Polley and her editors Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo throw in, but you also know there’s a voice behind this camera. And it belongs to an artist who definitely has something to say. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 2, 2023
Women Talking has a remarkable cast — Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, among others — and it’s grounded in dramatic real-life events. But it’s mannered in its conception and wooden in its execution, and has little to do with living, breathing people. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 13, 2022
Women Talking is a challenging work that requires a little patience from the audience, which is rewarded with a troubling, provocative story that lingers in the mind long after the film is over. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 26, 2022
Elevated by phenomenal performances from its cast, the film tackles a difficult subject with thoughtful sensitivity, levity, and spirited discussion that will leave audiences thinking about the film and its central premise for a long time after it's over. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSep 12, 2022
For better and worse, writer-director Sarah Polley’s adaptation of Women Talking is most noteworthy for its imagery. Read full review
90
SlashfilmSarah MilnerSep 15, 2022
Moments of levity and joy twinkle throughout the crackling, tense narrative, endearing the characters to us viewers. It's a fierce message against the oppressors, unapologetically feminist in reckoning against the patriarchy. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonDec 20, 2022
Women Talking is about as direct as cinema gets in portraying the complexities and nuances of the feminist struggle, and it achieves much with characters who wouldn’t likely consider themselves feminist or revolutionary. Read full review
100
The Associated PressLindsey BahrDec 20, 2022
Women Talking is not melodramatic or desperate or exploitative. It is astute and urgent and may just help those previously unable to find words or even coherent feelings for their own traumatic experiences. And hopefully it might just inspire more works of wild female imagination. Read full review
95
The AtlanticShirley LiJan 6, 2023
Just as a war movie can encourage its audience to appreciate heroism and sacrifice, Women Talking reminds us of the value of language—its capacity for context, for constructive debate, and, in the end, for collective healing. Read full review
42
The Film StageC.J. PrinceSep 10, 2022
However easy it is to admire Polley’s efforts to provide an example of the solidarity and courage it takes to build a better world, that alone doesn’t equate to good filmmaking. Women Talking doesn’t meet the moment so much as show up for it. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackDec 21, 2022
It is a constraint of cinematic vision that flattens the potential of the figures, the speech, and the movements of Women Talking. It is less about what is being said here – flawed yet fierce as it is – and more that, in order to realize the full impact of its meaning, what is being said needs to fight through the film’s own lacklustre veneer to be able to convey itself with any sense of spirit. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 9, 2023
The film’s rather abstract conversation doesn’t convey much in the way of urgency or specificity. But there is a sustained moral seriousness in Polley’s work, a willingness to confront pain. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 9, 2022
It’s all unavoidably stagey, with talky, tense scenes weighing the pros and cons of the decisions, and while Polley does make some attempts to take us outside the barn, to widen the canvas, there’s still an artificiality to some of the construct that makes us wish we were sitting watching this in the theatre instead. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSep 3, 2022
The philosophical and sometimes faith-steeped bent of the women’s discussion might put off audiences not willing to go there. For those ready to take the leap, the thoughtful and beautifully lensed feature is a rewarding exploration that addresses not just the characters’ predicament but the existential questions that face any contemporary woman navigating patriarchal setups. Read full review
100
The IndependentJessie ThompsonFeb 13, 2023
Even if Sarah Polley’s superlative work doesn’t get the plaudits or the audience it deserves, it should stand to have a far greater legacy. This is the kind of cinema that endures – not just as a great work of art (although it is that), but as something that moves us all forward. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 8, 2023
Polley allows bursts of weirdness and humour to punctuate deliberation that, though often abstract, never becomes alienatingly cerebral. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 23, 2022
The root of Protestantism, after all, is protest — against arbitrary and unaccountable authority in the name of a higher truth. Women Talking reawakens that idea and applies it, with precision and passion, to our own time and circumstances. The women don’t want pity or revenge. They want a better world. Why not listen? Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 6, 2023
The exceptional, often overwhelming power of the script that Polley wrote, based on Miriam Toews’s novel, is, if not undercut, not amplified by the filming. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeFeb 12, 2023
An atmosphere of empathy, reason and wit pervades Polley’s film, underwritten by an emancipatory urgency (“that day we learned to vote”) that drives the narrative even in its darkest moments. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 3, 2022
Dense isn’t always used as a compliment when describing a movie, but in the case of Women Talking it’s a badge of honor. Polley is tackling numerous social dynamics among the women as well as a number of contemporary themes including women’s roles in society, religious freedom, sexual liberation, and even gender identity. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 17, 2023
Despite a morose colour palette that can feel a little eat-your-vegetables at times, the film is beautifully performed and gripping in a chewy, nuanced, contemplative way – as its title suggests, the talking, as well as the thinking it kindles, is the point. Read full review
87
TheWrapTomris LafflySep 3, 2022
Polley strikes a hypnotizing rhythm amongst the women, who attack despair with cheeky humor (Women Talking is unexpectedly funny in parts) and uncertainty with astute deliberation, respectfully challenging each other on a course of action as much as lovingly braiding one another’s hair. Read full review
80
Time OutAnna BogutskayaDec 23, 2022
Women Talking imagines female emancipation as an honest, raging, caring experience. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 9, 2022
Polley admirably allows her fine performers ample space to bring Women Talking to life. But there are also the bigger needs of the film to be considered—sometimes Polley’s actorly generosity comes at a cost, when the film turns stage-y for a minute and we’re snapped out of its enveloping spell. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 3, 2022
The whole scenario is designed to get your blood boiling, while the resulting conversation can’t help but instill hope, as Polley gives these women a rare opportunity to reinvent their world. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 28, 2022
Ms. Polley, a longtime actress who got started in movies as a child, does an admirable job of keeping the dramatic temperature at a high level despite the strictures of the format, and Ms. Mara, Ms. Foy and Ms. Buckley all make a vivid impression. Yet no one in the movie seems to have a grasp of the practical realities. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 4, 2023
With skill and sensitivity, Polley turns an on-the-nose political debate into a bracing declaration of independence. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrOct 27, 2022
Self-assured, brimming with conviction and intellectually demanding - Women Talking is what cinema should be about. Read full review
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