4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Reviews

An absolutely devastating portrayal of life in Communist Romania, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is an enthralling story of a young woman named Otilia & her roommate, Gabita, who are trying to transact an illegal abortion from a doctor volunteering to do the job at an unexpected price, that ultimately ends up being a far more tragic & nightmarish experience for both of them. Delivering powerful performances from the two girls, brilliant execution of the strong script as well as its morally troubling theme from the director & superb camerawork in capturing the bleak Romania of the 80s as well as long unsettling static handling of shots, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a superb work of thought-provoking cinema & is a must for people who love taking their movies seriously.

Captivant du début à la fin, une caméra exceptionnelle. Chapeau au cinéma roumain!

It's slow in parts but its original and disturbing.

Pretty sweet movie. I think nails the abortion issue on the head pretty nicely. Very engaging to watch despite its slow pace.

Intense as hell! It's not easy to watch but it's an incredible film nonetheless.

Definitely one of the top European films ever. Gut-wrenching performances and a haunting direction on a scaring low-budjet masterpiece,in the dark and cold setting of 80's Romania.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days is a film about Otilia and Gabita in 1980's Romania. Gabita is seeking an abortion and her friend Otilia is helping her achieve it. That's the set up and in terms of plot there isn't a great deal else to it. They acquire the services of Mr Bebe who performs the procedure, and predictably for a man who deals in an illegal operation he isn't exactly pleasant. Much like many films that come out of Europe the plot is dealt with in a fairly slow tempo. It is the dialogue and the acting, from Marinca as Otilia in particular, that prove to be compelling. This is never easy viewing and for the most part the usually stationary cameras lend a certain ambiguity to the picture, yet the point when we see more than we need to is not as uncomfortable as it should be, it just seems unnecessary. I feel it would have been more powerful to have left it to the imagination, something that I'll do here for fear of spoling a plot point. It's the only point in which the film lacks subtlety. A point of reference to this film could be Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, which had more of an emotional investment in its character. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days never seems to try to adopt this approach, instead it is the distancing between the audience and the characters that seems most uncomfortable. The result is a film that is easy to admire but difficult, perhaps, to love.

Tough movie, get yourself ready to suffer. I have learned through the years that when, while watching a movie, I manage to get angry, that means that I am in front of a great work. This is a great movie, simple but true. Watch it.

Genius. There aren't many films that come out of Romania (especially compared to America and other parts of Europe) but all the ones I've seen, which aren't many, I've liked a lot.

Harrowing at times and uncomfortable to watch, but extremely interesting and investing

The sounds. It was the sounds that got me. The silence of snow falling outside a window, newborn kittens crying, a receptionist coughing, clothes wrinkling as people move about a small room, the cold knock of medical tools rubbing against each other in a leather bag. And all that heightens the fairly simple one-two of the actual performance of an abortion. Because Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is one of those ingenious fill-in-the-blanks cases of show-don't-tell, and it'll leave you either incredibly frustrated or profoundly touched by its handling of the complicated emotions of indifference. Nearing the end of communist Romania, Gabita (a gentle, innocent-to-the-point-of-being-helpless, and all the more amazing for it Laura Vasiliu) seeks with the help of her roommate Otilia (an equally striking Anamaria Marinca) a back-alley abortion after the title amount of time to think over a decision. No more tears.

It seems to affect Otilia more, the haggling of finding a person willing to risk jail time for what's considered to be murder (even to the point of doling out sexual favors), the aftermath of cleaning up the mess, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Mungiu is generous in his long and tracking shots, so not only do we feel like we're THERE, we feel the length, the distorted sense of reality, even -- in a dinner scene involving the friends of Otilia's boyfriend's (Alexandru Potocean) parents -- the anger that the scene doesn't cut off, that someone doesn't stand up and scream or cry, even walk away, because it's only ourselves we're fooling. Yeah. Speechless is right. "4 Months" is a tough movie to watch, even more so to stop thinking about, and that's exactly the point; it isn't made fine. It draws blood if you get too close, but that's the only way to even begin to comprehend its marvelously transfixing spell.

Unhearted and tense drama.

Just fine cinema. Brilliant.

it's supposed to be good and maybe it is but who cares, i didn't enjoy it one bit. its overlong, flat and boring and so are the characters.

with no doubt, one of the greatest films I've seen in my life!

Mungiu's extraordinary scope transports us to the unbearable environment of tragic decisions and their ultimate consequences. The Communist conflict is overwhelming, and yet it is implicit. The true horror of this masterpiece relies on the powerlessness and physical incapability of assuming current responsibilities and facing the brutal reality. Moreover, what happens when such overwhelming reality is affected by a ludicrous and inhuman governmental control? Béla Tarr's influence starts to arise more significantly, and the superb craftsmanship of this gem makes it, quite probably, the best film of 2007. This is one of those flicks that are either loved or hated (all I see are several ratings of 4.5 / 5 stars, and way too many scores below 3.5 stars).

98/100

breathtakingly realistic. bows to the filmmaker

I had read good things about this film, but I have to say, it was a bit of a chore to sit through. The performances are solid, but the directing felt awkward and, at times, tedious. Add to that the abrupt and anti-climatic ending and I was left a bit disappointed by it. Still, the film succeeds in portraying life in Romania in that specific era, as we see the friends buy and barter for black market stuff, deal with bureaucracy and whatnot. But that's it.

A truly memorable and often-intense drama that succeeds in creating an atmosphere where even the smallest mistake could result in total metaphorical decimation for the lead characters, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a classic example of how cinema from different nations, in this case Romania, can put Hollywood to shame and showcase how it is only a miracle that Hollywood is not the only source for cinema. As a fan of films that base the majority of the story through the use of long takes that Tarkovsky would have admired, thanks to the clever and intelligent method of this certain direction, Cristian Mungiu designs a realistic feeling to the film that looks as though we are watching something take place for real. The film is often uncomfortable and ferociously intense while the dialogue splashes across the scene in such an uncompromising and chilling method that an Oscar nomination certainly wouldn't have been a miss. A great film that might be better to watch alone, this is an example of world cinema at its most intense and believable.