The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

I saw "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open" a day after seeing "1917." The films share the stylistic trait of being filmed (mostly) to look like one continuous shot. "1917," a movie about a long-ago conflict populated by white men and full of canned platitudes is being heaped with praise and is all over the awards buzz circuit. "The Body Remembers.....", which feels urgent and of the moment, has exactly 4 reviews on IMDb as I write this review, which will be the fifth once I click "Submit."

This is what people are talking about when they vent frustration that movies are so dominated by white male stories. I am a white male, and I don't boycott movies based on them being about white males. "Joker," "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood," and "Uncut Gems" were among my favorite movies of 2019. But I do also crave stories about and by other demographics, and I understand the resentment when things like "1917" and "Ford v Ferrari," bro films if ever there were any, dominate the cultural conversation while films like this one are barely seen by anyone.

"The Body Remembers..." is a quietly magnificent and very moving film about....well, about lots of things actually. About domestic abuse, first and foremost. But also about class difference, about being a minority, about how some minorities are perceived to be more "minority" than others, even by those in their same demographic. It's about privilege and the blitheness that comes with it, even in well-intentioned people. It's about one person not being able to understand the decisions made by another when the "right" decision seems so obvious. It's a film that communicates as much, maybe more, during its long silent moments as it does when characters are talking. It's my favorite kind of movie, as it doesn't ask its audience to side with anyone or even like anyone. It just asks us to spend some time with them and see what kind of empathy we might have for them. It does what I turn to fictional narratives for...it puts me in the shoes of someone different from me and lets me experience what the world looks like from their perspective, which often looks quite different from the world as I experience it.

Of course I'm not naive enough to think a film this small or off the beaten path would ever be considered for serious awards attention, but I was more moved, energized, and excited by this film than all but a couple of the movies that will be vying for Oscars in a few weeks.

Grade: A+

One of the most incredibly close, really personal films I have ever seen. Sensory and emotional realism in every frame.

Two young First Nations women meet at an east Vancouver bus stop: Rosie (Violet Nelson) is pregnant, poor, and trying to get away from her common-law boyfriend who has beaten her; Aila (Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, one of the film's writer-directors) lives independently and does not have the hardships that Rosie has. Aila does all she can to rescue Rosie from her situation.

Writer-directors Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn made a clever choice in filming most scenes in real time while occasionally keeping the camera focused on only one character for several minutes. The impact is strong while such choices often fail in other films.

Aila is a genuinely helpful person whose great intentions may not succeed. In real life, they rarely do. It doesn't help that Rosie does some shocking things that show great ingratitude to the generosity Aila gives her. Further credit to the filmmakers on this characterization: Rosie's victimization in life causes her to act in harmful ways toward others even those who want to help her.

The highlight of the film is a visit to a women's shelter in which two of the support staff (played by Charlie Hannah and Barbara Eve Harris) interview Rosie. The caretakers show an exemplary combination of compassion and intelligence. They avoid flinching when Rosie casually tells them details of her very difficult life situation. Instead, they respond with calmness and warmth as they continue to ask her questions. They are the kind of people any one of us would want be on our side during difficult times.

There is no doubt that real-life shelter workers are as remarkable as those portrayed in this film. One reason this scene is so exceptional is that women's shelters are rarely, if ever, settings in movies. Further to that, the movie stands out overall as it humanizes those whose hardships are often merely summarized statistically in newspaper headlines. And let's not forget: the cast is great. - dbamateurcritic

A film made by women about women's issues is always welcome, even if there is an offer that is sometimes obsessive about heartbreaking lesbian love, menstrual blood and explicit sex, which distances them (the filmmakers and their audience) from the global panorama and social, ethnic, ideological and professional variables too distant from what happens in spaces less comfortable than those of the middle class, and from beds, cots and hammocks.

Just as in "Les prières de Delphine" --which I saw at the Panama Human Rights Film Festival - BannabáFest, where it won the award for Best Documentary-- "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open" is one of those films that make a different proposal, with an original story of women's experiences. This time it is a drama about two women from ethnic groups in Canada, who meet by chance one morning when motherhood, physical abuse and female solidarity lay on the table.

Sophie (Violet Nelson) is a marginal girl, with bad habits (she takes drugs, steals, doesn't work), mistreated by a ruffian lover and by the Canadian authorities, in an advanced state of pregnancy, who is constantly assaulted by her partner; and Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, one of the directors) is the daughter of a Norwegian and an indigenous woman, who moves in a circle with greater opportunities than Sophie has, with the desire to be a mother. For a couple of hours, they discover themselves and each other, in a framework of tacit reproaches of social inequality.

Without detracting from its dramatic value, for me (as for other reviewers in this page) the most interesting thing about "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open" is its aesthetic proposal. Everything takes place in a few hours of the day and the frequent uncut shots create the feeling that the film is told in real time. It is a work without the rush of commercial cinema, without multiple frenetic cuts, in which we calmly observe and listen, in which we experience the long pauses that the protagonists take in their exchange. The film is so focused on them and their dilemma of the day, that few of the characters we see on screen. Almost all their interactions take place outside the frame: the emphasis is on Sophie and Áila, and later two other women who they give access to their problem. And on the dramatic side, the film gives a great solution, when not giving the public answers, and not explaining anything about the past or suggesting the future of Sophie and Áila. Realism is the rule. Watch it. The movie won the Best Canadian Film Awards at the Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver Film Festivals, and from the Vancouver and Toronto Film Critics.

Being a slow burn, this film is best for a (possibly mature) Canadian or Indie film fan and features superb acting. Kudos all around.