This review was originally posted for the film’s world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Wishes aren’t decisions, decisions aren’t actions, and actions aren’t a given, especially where rights are concerned. Women intrinsically know this struggle — not just for choice itself, but for what choosing entails — and Oscar-nominated “Carol” screenwriter Phyllis Nagy incisively, humanely explores that in her gripping, personable drama “Call Jane,” the story of a suburban Chicago housewife (Elizabeth Banks) encountering an underground network of women facilitating safe abortions in the years before Roe v. Wade.
The Janes were real, an activist collective operating illegally but diligently to help pregnant women from all walks of life through a very particular hardship, and their incredible story is the subject of a documentary (“The Janes”) that’s also premiering at this year’s Sundance.