There was Jane – and yet there never was a Jane. Founded in Chicago in 1965, “Jane” was the code name for an underground network: by women, for women. A telephone number circulated, women called there who needed an abortion – and then the “Janes” mediated a safe abortion, transport service and care included for as little money as possible.
Seven members were arrested in a raid in 1972, each of these women threatened more than a hundred years in prison. But they managed to delay the process a bit. See you next year, pending a Supreme Court ruling on the case “Roe versus Wade”. That was the verdict that guaranteed women in the United States the right to have an abortion until it was lifted again last spring.
The “Janes” inspired Phyllis Nagy for her film, she weaves a story about two very different women. One is Joy (Elizabeth Banks), married to a lawyer, elegant with a pile of blonde hair, a teenage daughter and a swanky home in suburban Chicago.
An almost perfect life, at least Joy doesn’t question it until one day she sits at the doctor’s: she’s pregnant again – and probably won’t survive the pregnancy because of an illness. The clinic rejects an abortion because the child has better chances than his mother. Joy’s husband accepts that – he rejects an illegal intervention. He’s a lawyer, a man of the law.
Joy comes across a flyer, is rescued, and in the process meets the other main character, the leader of the “Janes”. Virginia (Sigourney Weaver) is everything she isn’t. She lives a happily dissolute life in the midst of her gang of women, who have heated discussions in her untidy living room while eating spaghetti. Virginia soon gets back in touch, Joy is supposed to be a nanny, and soon she’s in the middle of the underground.
Deciding for other women – that only leads to a swamp of prejudice
And there he also finds out that the great doctor the Janes take the women to isn’t one at all. Incidentally, this turn of phrase is also borrowed from reality. At first, Joy has reservations about helping women whom she gives worse reasons than she had for their abortion – but then she realizes the swamp of misjudgment she gets into when she tries to decide for other women.
Phyllis Nagy is a playwright who adapted Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015) from a novel by her longtime friend Patricia Highsmith. With “Call Jane” she is now directing for the cinema for the first time and is going straight into the full. The film has such a lovely retro style, Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver exude such positive energy, and there’s so much warmth to the commune-like hustle and bustle of Virginia’s house with everyone huddled together – you could almost find this underground network romantic despite the high risk . And while that may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, women in some states in the US could soon need guidance like this again on how to engage in civil disobedience.
Call Jane, USA 2022 -Director: Phyllis Nagy. Screenplay: Hayley Schore, Roshan Sethi. Camera: Greta Zozula. Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Wunmi Mosaku, Chris Messina, Kate Mara. DCM, 121 minutes. Theatrical release: December 1st, 2022.