Call Jane (2022)

Score: 3.5 / 5

One of the most unexpectedly timely movies of 2022, Call Jane is a fascinating and frustrating dramatization of the Jane Collective or "Janes" movement in the time before Roe v. Wade. I told you it was timely.

This film is fascinating for multiple reasons. Formally, because it's shot on sumptuous film with a warm '60s palette and a calm demeanor despite its tense material. Personally, because Phyllis Nagy (who wrote the screenplay for Carol and only directed one television film prior) as an already assured, confident director, didn't write this but handles it beautifully and has assembled a killer team and cast. Starring Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina, and Kate Mara -- and featuring Wunmi Mosaku and a chilling Cory Michael Smith -- they all seem perfectly matched with the setting and style; I never doubted for a minute their authenticity as they step into illegal territory in order to receive the healthcare they need. The opening scene alone, in which our protagonist Joy (Banks) escorts her lawyer husband (Messina) to a dinner in Chicago while a raucous protest erupts outside. Fans of The Trial of the Chicago 7 will recognize the chant, "The whole world is watching," as Joy looks on not with fear or apprehension but rather with curiosity and some sympathy.

But Call Jane also frustrated me a bit in its storytelling (I'm unfamiliar with writers Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi) because it can't quite decide whose story to tell or what the tone should be. It's very much Joy's story, and her dynamic journey makes the film eminently watchable. After her introduction at that swanky party, where we're immediately keyed into her innate curiosity about the status quo for women as well as her immense privilege in being shielded from these cultural contexts so far, she soon learns she's pregnant again (they have one teenage daughter, Charlotte, played by Grace Edwards), but something's wrong. Her doctor tells her that her pregnancy endangers her life, forcing her and her husband to meet with the hospital board -- entirely comprised of men -- who disrespect her presence and dignity before unanimously denying her "therapeutic termination" of pregnancy. They are helpless until Joy comes across a "Pregnant? Need help? Call Jane!" poster in town.

She indeed pays for the underground procedure and is whisked away to their secret location by a network of "Janes." Weaver plays Virginia, their fierce warrior of a leader, whose political and legal savvy almost singlehandedly keeps the organization running, including deals with the Mob who provide cheap, under-the-table rental spaces and presumably some protection. Refreshingly, this film is not all about Joy's laborious quest to get an abortion, as so many stories focus on that and not its aftermath. The bulk of this movie is about how Joy's successful operation leads her deeper into the organization as an increasingly active participant, first driving other women in need to their appointments and then helping with the operations themselves. Naturally, these developments make for some distracting subplots, because of course her family doesn't know what she's up to, and her friend and neighbor Lana (a wickedly boozy Kate Mara) offers a foil to her awakening as a liberated woman. 

Tonally, the film fluctuates between sober period drama and feminist comedy -- almost a buddy type film between some of the women -- and more than once I was reminded of other titles like Mad Men, Pieces of a Woman, and I'm Your Woman, but in a good way, and Call Jane is much peppier than those. Which is a little jarring, but also a welcome change. Maybe I should compare this more to Mildred Pierce and those Barbara Stanwyck-type vehicles of the early talkies, as the parts focused on Joy are basically about a lone woman fighting the odds and, if not always succeeding, at least surviving for the better. The crucial update here is that she bands together with other similar women to create a formidable and world-changing force. And then, there's always Sigourney Weaver, who really should make more movies to bless us with her incredible talents.