Chicago 1968: While students are rebelling on the streets outside, Joy (Elizabeth Banks) and her husband Will (Chris Messina) celebrate at a reception in a posh hotel. The contrasts could not be greater, a new era is heralded. When Joy, who already has a 15-year-old daughter, becomes pregnant a little later, the good housewife’s world collapses.
Although Joy’s own life is acutely threatened, an all-male committee rejects the medically required abortion. While her husband Will, a successful, very well-adjusted lawyer, comes to terms with the situation, Joy turns to the aid organization “Jane” in her distress, which works conspiratorially and has set itself the goal of actively combating these conditions.
story of an emancipation
A woman takes her fate into her own hands. Director Phyllis Nagy, born in 1962 and nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for her screenplay for the great Highsmith film adaptation “Carol”, also tells the story of an emancipation in “Call Jane”. In view of the tightening of abortion laws in many US states, her haunting drama based on true events has a sad topicality.
The women of the “Jane” collective put the frightened Joy in contact with the young doctor Dean (Cory Michael Smith), who carries out illegal abortions for the group for a lavish fee. The film meticulously shows how stressful and humiliating the abortion procedure can be for women. Everything is going well with Joy, and then the women give them a plate of pasta to strengthen them. Sigourney Weaver (“Alien”) plays the leader of the “Jane” collective with courage and passion. This Virginia is a pragmatic idealist who knows full well that she has to find a lot of money to help women.
For Joy, the story only begins after her break-up. She becomes involved with the underground collective, acquires medical knowledge, and then questions the role of the male doctor. The somewhat boring housewife who whiled away her afternoons drinking gin with her neighbor Lana (Kate Mara) has become a fighter for women’s emancipation. However, your family must not know about this. Elizabeth Banks embodies this story with great poignancy.
Phyllis Nagy’s drama, which is well worth seeing and which, with the character of the black activist Gwen (Wunmi Mosaku), also gives space to a less privileged woman, seems to come from a distant era in its somewhat washed-out pictures. But the plight of many unintentionally pregnant women, not only in the USA, is unfortunately still very topical.
Call Jane, USA 2022, 121 Min., FSK ab 12, von Phyllis Nagy, mit Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Mara, Chris Messina
