Jan 21

Jan 21 Sundance Film Festival movie review: 'Call Jane'

*Image courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.*

Elizabeth Banks compels as a mid-20th century woman in an impossible situation forced to go underground simply to save her own life in the drama 'Call Jane' (premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival).

In short: In the late 1960s, housewife Joy (Banks) has an unwanted pregnancy in a time where she can't get a legal abortion. Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara, Chris Messina and Wunmi Mosaku also star.

Abortion, by its very nature, is a hot-button issue. And make no mistake about this film: 'Call Jane' has an affirmed position on the subject. The best decision 'Call Jane' makes is centering the story on Joy's arc from dutiful homemaker to reproductive right advocate. The film is at its most compelling when Joy is the focal point, effectively putting the audience in her shoes as a wife, a mother and a woman. Banks wonderfully embodies Joy's complete transition, from sheltered housewife to confident and pioneering advocate fighting for women to have autonomy over their bodies.

'Jane' is most compelling when it focuses squarely on Joy's experience and determination - the film wanes into traditional docudrama territory when it tries to be an omnibus abortion rights story. Several scenes step away from Joy and turn its attention to conflicts and struggles of the larger Jane Collective, which secretly provided abortion services to Chicago-area women in the late '60s. These scenes depict the Collective's struggle to provide services to as many women as possible, while also dealing with the internal conflict of selecting which women get the procedure. Obviously this film's true agenda is to profile the Jane Collective, but the film is most effective when puts the audience in Joy's desperate position.

After tracking Joy's journey through the first two acts, the final act rushes to tie up some loose narrative threads. The script hangs an anvil of desperate women and criminal prosecution over Joy's head the entire time - and ultimately Joy's character arc leads her to ... seeking her family's acceptance. This only succeeds in taking agency from Joy as a protagonist - as she has very little to do with ultimate resolution, which basically comes down to whether her husband and daughter accept Joy's decisions. It's frustrating to watch a woman empower herself and transform into a decisive women's rights advocate - only for her story to hinge on whether she's supported by those closest to her.

Final verdict: 'Call Jane' makes its strongest case when it focuses on Joy's journey as a woman in need of options closed off to her - even if the script gets bogged down by the occasional scene designed only to profile a movement rather than an experience.