4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - 2007 - 4½ Stars

Actors:  Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu
Director:  Cristian Mungiu

Directors tend to like pomp.  How can I stage this scene - how can I make the right cuts to people's faces?  Cristian Mungiu understands that tension can often be built the opposite way.  Leave the camera in one spot and let the scene play out where it is.  The unbrokenness of the scene further emphasizes the reality.  There's a masterful example of this later in the film where the tension is not even happening on screen or just off it.

4 Months... effectively avoids exploitation (though coming awful close) while portraying a grim subject, without melodrama or High Tragedy.  Some directors would want half the lines in this film to be shouted.  Not so, here.