4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a 2007 Romanian film about a student's experience in getting an illegal abortion in that country. Her roommate in the university dorm helps make the arrangements and goes with her. The film is set it 1987 when Romania's abortion laws were more restrictive and arbitrary. The friend who helps the woman get the abortion is a more accommodating person than I am; there are some she does for her friend that I'd be unwilling to do.

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Slant Magazine calls it "an allegory that speaks to the struggles of freedom fighters gripped by the terror tactics of a political machine." Rolling Stone says, "This is great acting — you can't shake it." Wall Street Journal calls it an "elegantly crafted, brilliantly acted film". Time says, "That story is tautly, bravely acted". Spirituality and Practice concludes, "In this absorbing film friendship is the crown of life." DVD Talk describes it as "a harrowing, starkly told tale of abortion and rape in the waning years of Romania during the oppressive Ceauşescu regime." Salon.com encourages us to think about this as a thriller -a film noir- and not an abortion movie, saying,

If this was a movie about young men instead of young women, and if the illegal activity in the story involved a suitcase of money or a harebrained plot to kill someone ... then its genre roots would be no mystery.

EW gives it a grade of "A" and says,

Nothing good happens in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the riveting, horrifying chronicle of an illegal abortion performed in 1987 when Ceau¸escu's dictatorial hand still gripped Romania's throat. And yet no lover of greatness in filmmaking will want to look away from one of the very best movies of 2007

Christianity Today has discussion questions and says,

The film is not a pro-life propaganda film any more than it is a pro-choice one. What it is, is an honest, bracing, unflinching, compassionate work of art—superbly acted, staged, and directed

Roger Ebert praises the film in general and the acting in particular and notes, "obtaining an illegal abortion was much the same in this country until some years ago, and also in Britain". The film won awards. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 95%.