Delayed Reaction: Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Premise: A 17-year old girl travels from a small town in Pennsylvania to New York City to get an abortion.

 

This really goes without saying, but it's such a hair trigger issue, I feel the need to do so. This movie really isn't for any anti-abortion people. Regardless of how sensitively this movie treats the topic, it's really not intended to sway anyone any more than Unplanned will swing people the other way.

 

The word that keeps coming to me to describe this movie is sullen. It's not a depressing movie. It's not sensationalized. It's not casual. It's gloomy and quiet. I appreciated how comfortable it was with silence and explaining things with looks and actions rather than words. I learned everything I needed to about Autumn's (Sidney Flanigan) home life and social standing from how she was treated during her performance at school and getting dinner afterwards. I learned what I needed to about her relationship with Skylar (Talia Ryder) by her going with Autumn and sticking with her. I really want to go back and check out Eliza Hittman's previous movies after how confidently she directed this one.

 

I appreciate that they movie doesn't lay it on too thick. Autumn's attempts to induce a miscarriage are more pathetic than theatric. It makes its point about the difficulty getting an abortion by showing the lengths she has to go to rather than having her complain to someone about it. At the crisis pregnancy center, we know that they aren't really listening to her based on the tone-deafness of deciding to play the anti-abortion video. I appreciate how the movie lets us choose how to interpret the pregnancy center telling her she was 10 weeks pregnant rather than 18 weeks. The centerpiece scene - the one the title comes from - is powerful because of how little Autumn actually says. So much of what the movie doesn't outright say is what makes it so effective.

 

The movie lost me a little bit around the end when Skylar feels pressured into making out with that guy. It felt like one thing too many as I watched it. I'm curious how it will sit with me a week later though. It was meant to be a scene that made me uncomfortable. It could've gone a lot more extreme and it wisely chose not to. Perhaps that beat will feel like restraint over time. As I was watching it though, it was the only time the movie felt like it was underlining a point it had already made. That really is a small concern though. Overall, I can see why this movie got so much attention coming out of Sundance.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend