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Call Jane (NC16)
122 minutes, opens on Thursday
3 stars
The story: The Jane Collective was an underground women’s network in Chicago that provided thousands of safe abortions from 1969 to 1973, when the procedure was a felony offence across the United States. Elizabeth Banks stars in this semi-fictionalisation as Joy, a housewife with a life-threatening pregnancy who is initiated into the organisation after turning to it for help.
Call Jane is an upbeat crowd-pleaser that handles the fraught issue of abortion with a light touch without ever making light of it: The surgery scenes with those cold metal instruments are like a horror movie.
Immediately after, the “client” is welcomed into the bustling headquarters of the collective’s hard-bitten founder (Sigourney Weaver) and fed a comforting bowl of spaghetti.
Director Phyllis Nagy was Academy Award-nominated for her Carol (2015) screenplay, about a lesbian liaison. She understands female kinships. The sorority of grassroots activists – every one of them called Jane – is vibrant, and Joy finds a sense of purpose in her growing commitment to their courageous cause. Her attorney husband (Chris Messina) and teenage daughter (Grace Edwards) meanwhile think she is busy with art classes.
Joy is fearful, knowing she is risking everything with her illicit double life.
More than that, though, she is resolute, excited, curious and smart. The layered performance is a career-high by the multi-hyphenate talent Banks, who directed this week’s other new release, Cocaine Bear.
Joy’s personal and political awakening is an inspiring story. At a time when the US Supreme Court has again outlawed abortion, it is also a grim reflection on the fragility of women’s rights.
Hot take: Warm and relatable, Banks shines in an enjoyable abortion drama with important matters on its mind.
Empire Of Light (NC16)
115 minutes, opens on Thursday
2 stars
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