4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)

I’m speechless and this not often happens to me. I ended in a knot; I was a knot in my chair. Very Intense Movie!!! Extremely good movie! Very simple but Brilliant with capital B. I need a drink, so you have to wait…

Starts slowly even with some smiles thanks to sharp common day dialogue (the Dragut thing is fun), but when the story pickups the pace you are in a soft roller coaster, a brief relaxation at the Birthday dinner and a fast downhill roller coaster until the end. Talk about movies transmitting emotions and allowing you to be part of the story, this is one heavy ride that you cannot miss.

I was thinking that camera moves, sound and Anamaria Marinca performance is what really makes this movie outstanding and obviously a great director and storyteller, as Cristian Mungiu made pure cinema magic with a budget of €600,000 and the contribution of very well known to me companies like McCann Erickson and Mindshare that did “brand placement” in the beginning (I would have kill them if they do brand or product placement after the roller coaster began!) among other companies.

I mentioned cinema magic as a reference to that with so little money Mungiu did a great masterpiece, but the movie style can be described as blunt realism, as the movie is very straightforward and real, as real as life itself. Set in the last years of Ceauşescu oppressive regime after his wife decided that abortion was illegal, the movie tells the story of two university students that arrange an illegal abortion for one of them.

The story is terrible and perhaps tragic, but what impresses me is how Mungiu chose to tell it with fix camera and actors crossing by, long shots, outstanding sounds, simple and great editing and how he managed to bring out of Anamaria Marinca that amazing performance that with expressions she spoke much more than with words. This young actress definitively has a great future. Then the rest of the cast is flawless and as good, but to me Marinca steals the movie, is her movie.

I do not have to mention how many awards and nominations this movie has, just browse the blog and you’ll find them all. Truth is that the movie deserves all the awards and more, deserves to be seen by people beyond the festival circuit. I hope that eventually movies like this one could reach the theater near you or at least the word of mouth spreads and many, many people buy the DVD or at least rent it.

This is a movie that I strongly recommend to every woman in the world, as the story is universal and will touch every sensible fiber in women. That does not mean that men should not see it, they HAVE to see it, but somehow I imagine that the story will be very hard to digest for them.

Last but not least, this movie belongs to a larger project called: Tales from the Golden Age - a subjective history of communism in Romania told through its urban legends. The project's aim is to talk about that period with no direct reference to communism but only through different stories focused on personal options in a time of misfortunes that people had to live like normal times. After seeing this movie I’m absolutely looking forward to see Cristian Mungiu’s urban legends. If you feel like checking the official site go here.

BIG ENJOY!!!