‘Happening’ Film Review: Sixties-Set Abortion Drama Rings True to Current Zeitgeist
thewrap.comth century France.“C’est pas juste,” Anne insists, as one moment after another is decided by people who don’t care about or even consider her needs.
She’s right, of course; nothing about her situation is fair. Judging, shunning, shaming; anger, fear, pain — this is the language of Diwan’s story.
To call it a difficult watch would be an understatement; it often feels, in its stark honesty, like a horror film.But Anne, through sheer force of will, also makes room for the vocabulary of strength and self-determination.
Like Eliza Hittman’s more expansive “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” or Cristian Mungiu’s unsparing “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days” — both of which also follow vulnerable young woman as they race through a maze without a map — “Happening” serves to unsettle, expose, and condemn.
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