2007 / Cristian Mungiu > There’s something that’s in the minds of the Cannes juries, year after year, that I just can’t figure out. It’s as if their choice for the Palm d’Or has to be this significant social statement that future filmgoers will always appreciate and respect. (After all, who, in retrospect, is not ashamed that Fahrenheit 9/11 walked away with the top prize in 2004?) 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a good film, but it’s also filled with one egregious flaw that arguably discounts the whole statement of the film. While I can’t give it away, I can imagine the scene being a sticking point for almost everyone who watches it.

Technically, this so-called Romanian New Wave seems to follow works of the Brothers Dardenne with its claustrophic camerawork and frantic pacing as if to give a sense of realism that’s supposedly gone missing from cinema. Here, however, one could argue that the reason realism has become modified in film is because film is an escapist medium, not one to transport us back to the moment of truth in which we already live.

But such philosophies aside, I simply can’t enjoy a film that fails to give the viewer a sliver of hope. There are hints at it, but ultimately, it’s all a mirage. There is no heart. There’s nothing emotional that we’d want to grip onto, but rather lots that we’d like to run away from. There is, however, an incredible performance by Anamaria Marinca, who had the unfortunate luck of going up against the incomparable Jeon Do-yeon at Cannes last year. For that and to understand the infatuation with the Romanian realist movement, , the film is worth watching—though how much you enjoy it is completely up to you.