I have never been a fan of the director Patryk Vega, who is despised by proffessional critics, but his brutal and simple movies, mostly about mafia or crime, break commercial records in Poland. However, I decided to give Botoks a chance. And it turned out to be better, than I expected. Definitely not a masterpiece, but decent six stars.
The film is a dark comedy, with many shocking scenes and risky humour - that's why it is defintely not a proposal for everyone. Actors' play is very good, and dialogues are vivid. The director claims, that all dialogues and situations are inspired by real inside anecdotes, and it is plausible (well, maybe apart from a dog scene) - however, of course, they are overdrawn. But I'm amazed, when the reviewers hate this film because it shows Poles as drunk or dumb people. Obviously, the director focusses on drinking, incompetent, unsympathetic, greedy, pervert, misogynic healthcare workers, but such is the convention of the movie, and such people can be found in any country. We have plenty of soap operas about competent and caring doctors. There are however exceptions in the movie - main heroines, who care about their patients, even if they are burnt-out and harsh. We touch here the most important feature of the movie - it is a story of four strong, independent women in traditional men's world. And the misogyny of many older male doctors is a sad fact.
One delicate theme is a subtle anti-abortionist tone of the movie, although in my opinion it is legitimate director's voice in discussion. There is no direct message, that the abortion is wrong, nor blaming of women, who want abortion. It is however perfectly understandable, when one female doctor decides, that she doesn't want to perform any more abortions, after she is expecting a baby herself. Demanding a right to free abortion, we forget, that the doctor has to abort a human being. Indeed, the abortion is surely no good, and it is good, that the film makes us think, avoiding primitive propaganda. It must be however pointed out, that the movie diverges strongly from Polish reality in this subject. Instead of a medical director insisiting, that every doctor should perform abortions, there were far more common cases, when hospital directors or local conservative politicians or even priests demanded, that every doctor should sign a refusal conscience clause. And after law change, proceeded by Polish conservative government in 2020, genetic defects are no more considered a reason of abortion, not mentioning free abortion - and as a result, legal abortion is almost impossible in Poland for now on...
