Harrowing real-life abortion drama 'Happening' heads to Ragtag Cinema

I won’t pretend I can review Audrey Diwan’s “Happening” the same way I’d review “Doctor Strange 2.”

The latter is a fantastical spectacle. “Happening” confronts its audience with the discomforting reality of its subject: abortion. Given the high stakes around the topic, a review cannot ignore the subject’s cultural significance and its pernicious politics. This must be tackled head-on, lest it appear disingenuous.

Perhaps I can write this without getting into my personal thoughts. After all, I am just a dude who writes a film column as a hobby with no background in medicine or science, theology or ethics. The weight of my perspective could barely beat back a feather — but it’s hard not to have an opinion on something that’s emotional.

The job of this column, and my ultimate goal as a critic, is to weigh a film’s virtues with its faults in the larger context of our current culture. I report how the film plays out and hope to let you decide if the movie is for you.

With this labored disclaimer out of the way, I can say “Happening” — an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s personal memoir — cuts through the political hyperbole and offers a clear, harrowing examination of a life-changing situation and how this defines its main character. How the world of 1961 France, with its strict anti-abortion laws, makes any decision mired by fear of incarceration, death, or a life moving forward full of guilt and regret.

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Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) attends a prep school where youthful desires compete fiercely with viciously-applied standards of morality. She finds herself pregnant. Anne talks to her doctor, our first glimpse into her larger dilemma.

She mentions the name of her school. He asks whether she knows the son of a friend. “He has a bright future ahead of him,” the doctor says in between puffs on a cigarette. “He is going places.”

Quietly, subtly, the film tells us the conflict. A boy who gets a girl pregnant would never have to worry about how this event would mar his “bright” future. Anne knows if she keeps the child, her plans to teach or write will be over. There will be no graduation. No college. Life, as it was known in her time and place, will be defined.

Anne asks the doctor about her options. “There are no options,” he snarls dismissively, “for you.” We notice the “you” gets an extra emphasis in the actor’s delivery.

Thus, the journey of “Happening” commences to seek out illegal means. There are shady, shadowy corridors full of shady, shadowy people. Those who promise to help but ultimately wish to exploit someone in a vulnerable spot. Every place she goes, the loss of her life very much lurks in every room.

The film does not shy away from the graphic nature of this subject. There are two moments in particular that will sear into your mind if you have not had the misfortune to endure them yourself. I won’t describe them except to say they are upsetting, but accurately reflect what is at stake in Anne’s situation.

I have to think anyone — regardless of what side of this issue they identify — would watch “Happening” and think gravely about the life-or-death consequences in a different way.

Of course, there will be those who think “Happening” is rotten from the start. That Anne’s decision to terminate the pregnancy is repugnant, and that her decision to engage in sex should mean she made up her mind and the course of her destiny is already set. All I can say is that is not the film Diwan made. That is not the real Ernaux’s story.

For some reason, I thought back some 15 years to Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up.” People were mad the movie didn’t even debate abortion as an option for its characters. At the time, I defended the script because the characters — clearly smart — made their decision early in the film and the plot rolled out accordingly. I still defend that, as I do this film.

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“Happening” does not entertain debate, but rather captures a realistic depiction of making a decision in a culture that says the decision is off-limits. We don’t often see any subject filmed as starkly as this. Its frankness is often shocking.

Otherwise, the film is expertly shot with good performances that highlight the nature of the story. Vartolomei is wide-eyed and pale, ghost-like as she exists between the world she knew and the world she now inhabits. The other characters are not cartoons, but rather defined by the strict conservatism of a post-World War II world. They are as much a victim of circumstance as Anne.

Many will want “Happening” to offer answers to difficult questions. But the film’s purpose is to show the agony and distress of a life in crisis as designed by its society. It is stunning, upsetting and essential.

You want to talk about the politics of abortion? Buy me a beer at Gunter Hans across the street from Ragtag Cinema. You want to avoid it altogether? Well, that superhero movie is still playing.

In real life, James Owen is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. He created/wrote for Filmsnobs.com from 2001-2007 before an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield. He was named a Top 20 Artist under the Age of 30 by The Kansas City Star when he was much younger than he is now.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Harrowing real-life abortion drama 'Happening' heads to Ragtag Cinema