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139 comments in total

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187 out of 266 people found the following comment useful :-
Probably best Romanian movie, 29 May 2007

Author: ovidjus from Romania

This is a movie from the highest rated young Romanian director who won highest appreciation from the Cannes festival (Golden Palm) in 2007. It's a movie that will make you feel like a human being again and after seeing it you will surely think much better about Romanian cinematography. The movie is a drama of a human being that is oppressed by the communist regime in Romania, one of the most criminal regimes of this century.In the last years of the Romanian communism, the dictator's wife "Elena Ceausescu" made it clear for everyone that abortion is no longer permitted and that had a lot of implications later on. Although the movie is not about the regime itself but about the character and her personal drama. 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days is supposedly the beginning of a series of films Mungiu is hoping to make called The Golden Age, each about life in Communist Romania. I hope he's successful; if this film is an example of the kind of rough-hew humanity and blunt realism we can expect in future films, I'd definitely seek them out. As it is, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days moved me and challenged me, made me feel and made me think, demonstrated the personal and political challenges of a heartbreaking choice that, in many ways, is no choice at all-- and that's a rare enough achievement, and one worthy of seeking out.This movie is a work of art

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126 out of 169 people found the following comment useful :-
A path to maturity, 20 September 2007

Author: Cosmin Chereches from Romania

Usually, movies are about entertainment, or about art, or simply they just have something to say. This is exactly the case with "4,3,2". Going beyond exceptional cinematography, this is a movie about serious problems, in a serious approach. It's about those extraordinary events in our every day life. The cast and all the effort put into making it add up to the success of presenting a story about real life with fictional means. It's not a movie about women, nor about men, it doesn't concern only women, or only men, it's about struggle and sacrifice, without being pathetic or exaggerated. You, or me, or the one next to you, could face the same problems and we each deal with them in our own way. The winning point of the film is that it's not judgemental about these choices, but only alarming, or purely descriptive.

Great acting, great directing, great filming, great writing and a great story make this film well worthy of those Palmes D'Or. It's a great achievement for cinematography in general, not only the Romanian one in particular. But for a more detailed perspective, just go see the movie!

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118 out of 159 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a film about abortion!, 7 June 2007

Author: Blue I from Italy

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

just got back from seeing this at a local art-house theater in rome, italy. it's showing as part of the "cannes in rome" week, a great way to stay in touch without the mess of the festival itself.

anyway, i was impressed, struck if you will, by the crudity of the cinematography of the film at first. then, more and more, it became clear to me that this rough and unpleasant hue was just what the story, the place and the moment in history needed.

romania is not a real place to most people in the world, at best a place we have seen some terrible news images of, related to the darkness of egomaniacal dictatorship and it's eventual overthrow in our generations lifetime (sorry teens, not you for the most part). interestingly enough, probably for budgetary reasons, the film doesn't include any kind of discernible treatment or view of a town/city or it's inhabitants at all. yet, despite the absence of a fuller description of place and time, the filmmakers are able to convey what such a regime has produced on many levels ranging from the personal-moral to the societal-cultural.

from the starkness of the cinematographer's visual treatment; ugly, neon greens fading to grey blacks, to the hardness of the physical environment; cold, wet grey parking lots, garishly neon lit hotel lounges, the director and his team paint a synthetic picture of a no-joy, no-hope, no-way-to-think-about-morals world.

this setup is perfectly complimented by the film's matter of fact and intentionally simple but very controlled story telling style. not for a minute does the viewer get invited to participate in any hypothetical or practical moral choice concerning life or abortion, but, at least for those that come with an open heart and mind, find themselves drawn into the abyss of the story's protagonist, otila (Anamaria Marinca), an onlooker like ourselves, alas a participant to the consequences of a variety of her friends personal choices. nonetheless, this abyss doesn't create a huge, melodramatic, external response in her, and i credit the film for giving us a heroine, who, despite being neither truly likable nor morally upright, is still a fine example of a strong human being, albeit or perhaps precisely because she was produced (in part) by a cold regime, it's historic and cultural background and it's subsequent society.

i cannot pretend to say with any authority that the spirit i captured in this film is authentically romanian, but i perceived it as such. otila's decisive but understated way of putting her counterparts - Gabita, Dr. Bebe, (how cruel a name) and her own boyfriend - in place with a few sharp words, perfectly fits the image i have made over the years of the romanians (and other former soviet controlled peoples) i have met personally.

so, filmboy39 et al, what's this movie about? to me certainly not just about abortion. yes, the baby dies (call it fetus if you must), yet i wasn't left with that as my main thought exiting the theater or discussing it afterward with my friends. personally i'd likely have preferred almodovar's treatment of a strong "huwoman", but this work speaks of strength and overcoming impossibilities in an inhuman world, a theme that surely resounds in most, certainly in aldomovar. hence, i credit Cristian Mungiu for his successful attempt of going, not beyond the morals of this issue, but on a road less traveled, into a sharing of the what brings people to such choices despite clearly knowing and wanting better. anybody read the story of the logger who cut off his own leg to survive? happens everyday!

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118 out of 164 people found the following comment useful :-
Amazing & intelligent film, 14 September 2007

Author: Jo Kidsada from Canada

I was fortunate to see this film during the TIFF last week. With Palm d'Or behind the title, my expectation was high and I was amazingly satisfied.

As an audience in TIFF, we also got to have a Q&A session with Cristian, the director and it was apparent to me that he is a very intelligent man. Everything that was in the movie was well thought and planned. There is no accidents about this movie.

There are quite a few unclear scenes. However after, the director answered a few questions for the audience and I got to understand his point of view. It was clear to me what he was trying to show us. There is no wasted scenes or filler during the whole show.

There is a particular scene where many don't understand why it is so long and meaningless. Many viewers got frustrated, irritated and restless after a while. But that is exactly what the director wants us to feel. He plays with his audience through his film. What a brilliant idea ! For those who has seen it, will understand. Your feeling is exactly what Otilia was feelings.

This is not an anti-abortion movie as the director said. There is no political statement. It is just a daily life of a few Romanians during the period and you can feel it through this movie.

For all other foreign film fan, this is an absolute must see for this year.

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74 out of 92 people found the following comment useful :-
Less is sometimes better..., 10 November 2007

Author: loco_73 from Canada

A visceral and emotionally draining experience. Those are not typical superlatives one usually conjures while commenting on a movie, yet in this case I dare use such a characterization as a positive rendering of what I felt when watching this film.

The spartan and minimalist style of the movie only adds to its potency. Though many might find it jarring to sit through, I can only hope that people will have the patience and resolve to watch this brilliant example of movie making. If you invest your time and emotions in this one, you will not be disappointed.

The acting, camera work, cinematography are of the highest quality, especially given the budgetary restrictions and scarcity of available resources.This movie is yet more ample proof that one does not necessarily need a 200 million dollar budget to make a great film. Creativity and originality can add untold dimensions to any physical limitations and barriers.

All in all a great "little" movie about a forgotten slice of history, a little known place and, a time of horrifying brutality and oppression i.e. the so-called Golden Age (epoca de aur), Romania and Nicolae Ceausescu. This movie, "4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile/4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" is the first installment in a proposed trilogy entitled "Amintiri din epoca de aur/Tales From The Golden Age".

I'm looking forward to the next chapters...

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63 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
As uncompromising as any film I have seen in recent memory, 14 October 2007

Author: Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Friendship and support in our normal everyday life is a very valuable thing to have. In a repressive environment where one misstep can cause imprisonment or worse, it is often the only avenue for survival. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is about the bond between two young Romanian students who are there for each in moments of crisis, in this case - an illegal abortion, carried out in stealth, where danger is an insidious presence at all times, a caution to those in our own country wishing to overturn Roe v. Wade. Reminiscent of the style of the Dardenne Brothers with its close-ups and hand-held camera, the film is mostly understated and key events happen off camera (with one glaring exception), yet it is a very demanding film, powerfully acted and totally convincing, as uncompromising as any film I have seen in recent memory.

Set in Romania in 1987 during the final days of the Ceausescu regime, 432 conveys a pervasive grayness that underscores the sterility of life in Eastern Europe at the time. If there was a bright and happy side to life in Romania in the late eighties, you will not find it here. For the first thirty minutes, preparations are being made for an unspecified event by two students in a college dormitory in Bucharest that looks like the interior of a hotel scheduled for demolition. One roommate Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) sends the other, Otilla (Anamaria Marinca), to procure items such as cigarettes, soaps, and beauty items and to borrow money from friends but we do not learn what the money is for. The two women are very different. Gabita is passive, almost helpless, while Otilla is more self assured and outgoing, though she is also circumspect in displaying her emotions.

Mingu does not show us the world in which the girls live or any of the circumstances that led to Gabita's drastic decision to have the abortion. It is just a given. When it is revealed that Gabita is pregnant and is seeking an abortion, it is the more aggressive Otilla who makes the arrangements. Trying to book a room at the hotels that were suggested, Otilla is thwarted by cold, bureaucratic clerks who act as if they just came from the hospital attending Mr. Lazarescu. Gabita's failure to confirm hotel reservations means that Otilla has to settle for a third hotel not on the list. When she meets with Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), the illegal abortionist, he is perturbed that she came instead of Gabita and even more distressed that neither of the two hotels he suggested were booked.

A scene outside a building in which Bebe scolds his elderly mother creates more anxiety for Otilla and the meeting at the hotel between the two women and the abortionist is replete with threats, bullying tactics, and demands for more money. When the sleazy abortionist discovers that Gabita is not two months pregnant as she had said but 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, he ups the ante. Cynically citing the risks he is taking that could result in a long prison term, Bebe only agrees to perform the abortion after both women reluctantly agree to have sex with him. Heightening the feeling of uneasiness, Otilla leaves Gabita alone in her hotel room propped up on two pillows unable to move, as she fulfills a promise to her boyfriend, Adi (Alex Potocean), to attend his mother's birthday party.

Otilla is sullen and uncommunicative and the conversation among family members goes on and on, making her feel more and more isolated. One relative criticizes her asking for a cigarette and goes into a speech about the failings of the younger generation as Otilla looks for a reason to leave. As the film winds to a gripping conclusion, the almost unbearable tension had many in the sold out audience stirring uncomfortably in their seats. Though 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days depicts the oppressive nature of the social system and its laws, it is not a polemic against Communism or illegal abortions, but is more about the dignity of two women, friends who are willing to take risks and sacrifice for each other without expectation of reward or even thanks.

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48 out of 63 people found the following comment useful :-
the end of the transition for Romanian cinema, 24 December 2007

Author: dromasca from Herzlya, Israel

Cristian Mungiu's film is the most successful in what is called the Romanian Cinama New Wave, although it's not the very best in my opinion. I liked more 'The Death of Dante Lazarescu', and even 'California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit') had better chances from start. And yet '4-3-2' succeeded better than other because it vibrates different chords in the viewers souls and on different planes. Women will resonate with the story of the imposed tragedy at a personal and national level resulted from the anti-abortion policies in Communist Romania, and one cannot say it's only a pro-choice movie, it's a real indictment. If one is interested in recent European history he may see the results of what communist propaganda named the Golden Age, an apocalyptic landscape of cold, dark and loneliness. If you are Romanian and lived these times you may feel you returned in time and the end of the movie may seem the awakening from a recurring nightmare.

And if you are a fan of good cinema you will admire the virtuosity of a director who learned perfectly the lessons of Jim Jarmusch and DOGMA and transfered them in the East European space. You need the hand of a master to create those those long shots in which every detail is in place, camera, actors, lights and voices. I see from time to time older Romanian movies where I observe not that much the lack of technical means in the 70s or 80s, but more the lack of capacity of the directors to compensate this disadvantages with simplicity of concept and turn them into quality as other directors from less privileged schools of cinema have done. Well, the last films of directors like Mungiu or the late Nemescu I could see a jump ahead in quality of expression that takes many generations for other film schools.

There are many memorable scenes in this film. One of them describes a family dinner, where the principal character, a student from a lesser means family arrives invited by her boyfriend. It's his mother's birthday, and they have as guests two couples of friends from the local mid-upper class. The scene is a nine minute shot with fixed camera, focusing on four characters sited at the head of the table, with a few others voices being heard from out of the screen space. She is in the middle, and obliged to listen and participate, but she wants to be some other place, near her friend who just underwent an illegal abortion. Every minute may be fatal for the life of her friend. The dialog is not meaningless, it is a short novella on its own about the art of compromise necessary for survival in a dictatorship. And yet, she is there and is not there - all looks like a Da Vinci painting, with Jesus sited among the apostles, but already in a different spiritual reality. Magnificent to follow as its character has its own life, its like a concatenation of first plans one near the other.

In another memorable scene Otilia runs in the night to get rid of the aborted child. It's one of these long and cold nights into which Romania was plunged at these times because of electricity savings. She runs on the streets scared, scared not that much by the shades of the night but by the proof of the 'crime' she is carrying and which can incriminate her for many years of jail if she is caught. Best horror scene of the year in my view.

Anamaria Marinca is superb in the role of Otilia. No mannerism, no melodrama, no make-up - the actress is just living the character of a girl ready to sacrifice everything to help her naive and maybe a little dumb friend. It is by this humanity of the simple people that dictatorship can be survived at the human level the film seems to say.

'4-3-2' is a candidate for the best foreign film at the Oscars, but I am afraid it will not get the prize. The film starts slowly and needs patience to get the sense, and many jurors may not get over the first third. The interest for East-European cinema is decreasing, it's not such a new thing any longer, and Romanian cinema is little known out of Europe. Anyway, Oscar or not, this film is simply good, and it demonstrates that the Romanian cinema passed the period of transition and it's time for maturity. It's now even harder, as Romanian directors will need to find the inspiration to make films that do not look that much into the past but still can catch the interest of the local and international audiences. It will be interesting to follow.

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55 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
Abortion :"1987 Romanian Style...", 3 November 2007

Author: screenwriter-14 from United States

Another powerful film from Romania, FOUR MONTHS, THREE WEEKS, TWO DAYS, from Cristian Mungiu with tremendous performances from Ana Maria Marinca as Otilia and the lovely Laura Vasiliu, playing 'Gabita', in a story of abortion and the effect on family and friendship. As in 1208:EAST OF BUCHAREST, the ability to look into Romania and visit with characters that depict the time of Romania in 1987 who deal with oppression in so many ways in their lives, is a film you will not ever forget. No wonder this jewel of a film won Cannes' Palme D'Or 2007.

The film belongs to Ana Maria Marinca as her character Otilia commands the screen in scenes which drive the story forward and enforce the horror of not only abortion, but much more. The camera work is really superb in external night shots that follow Otilia on her journey of horror. And the last scene is one to remember. I hope that this film will be honored in more festivals and that its theatrical release in the USA will bring many kudos to this excellent story and film.

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65 out of 102 people found the following comment useful :-
It is not a movie for everyone but this is a challenging and fascinating film, 6 December 2007

Author: collipal-1 from Argentina

4 Months,3 Weeks and 2 Days is not a movie for everyone.It can be very strong for a sensible person.But,this is a challenging and fascinating movie.I said this movie is not for everyone because it has very hard scenes.But,those scenes are completely justified and the thing I most appreciated on them was the realism they show.A very strong realism that other movies do not show.So,this is also a brave movie.This film has a perfect creation of atmosphere and it made me feel I was inside that scenes.The performances are phenomenal.They are so natural that the actors do not seem to be acting.4 Months,3 Weeks and 2 Days is a spectacular film which is brave,fascinating and a challenge to the spectator.One of the best films of 2007.

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43 out of 59 people found the following comment useful :-
Not perfect but brilliant, 14 January 2008

Author: kjewitt from United Kingdom

The story is a very simple one. It's 1987 in Romania and abortion is illegal. Pregnant student Gabita and her roommate Otilia check into a cheap hotel where a backstreet abortionist called Bebe is going to deal with Gabita's problem. Under Romanian law, the degree of illegality depends on how long Gabita has been pregnant: on this subject, as on most others, she is worryingly vague. Very cleverly, the writer makes Otilia, the more resourceful of the girls, the protagonist. Otilia needs all her courage to deal with the suspicious hotel staff, to meet Bebe's demands, to evade the police and jail. The obvious words to use are spare, direct, realistic. The suspense generated is astonishing. The question of whether abortion is right or wrong is irrelevant to the psychology of the film - all that matters is that it is dangerous. I have great sympathy for all those Romanians who have written comments on this site, complaining about the portrayal of their beloved country. However, I believe that this film reflects well on Romania today. It's certainly a much more sophisticated and honest film than Vera Drake, which was hideously sentimental.

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