Call Jane Parent Guide

After fainting and waking up in the hospital, Joy (Elizabeth Banks) is given a medical diagnosis no pregnant woman wants to hear. She has a serious medical condition and if she does not terminate her pregnancy she is at high risk of death. Faced with a terrible dilemma, Joy determines that her highest priority is remaining alive to care for her teenage daughter (Grace Edwards) and decides to end the pregnancy. But this is 1968 and abortion is illegal in the state of Illinois.

When Joy’s appeal for a medical exemption is rejected, she becomes desperate. She eventually finds her way to “Jane”, a collective of women who organize abortions for anyone who can pay the doctor. This experience becomes a transformative event for Jane. Her procedure done, she becomes increasingly involved with the group until she is completely indispensable. There’s one big problem: neither her husband nor her daughter have any idea of what she’s really doing with her time…

I’m going to deal with the elephant in the room right up front. Abortion is an extraordinarily controversial issue with passionately held views on either end of the spectrum and lots of ambivalence in the middle. I am not a moral philosopher, so I will not be expounding on the rights or wrongs of the procedure or my own complicated opinions. I am a movie critic so that’s what I’m going to do: assess this production as a work of cinema.

As a film, Call Jane is very well done. Yes, it’s a movie-with-a-message and it’s extremely effective at conveying that message without sensationalism or manipulation. The writing is crisp, with only the occasional bit of self-indulgence, and the pacing is excellent. The acting, in particular, is top shelf. Elizabeth Banks imbues Joy with determination, desperation, and a totally believable evolution from self-deprecating housewife into activist powerhouse. As Joy becomes more aware of the struggles of other women, she grows more confident in her own intelligence and ability to change people’s lives. She is ably matched on screen by Signourney Weaver, who is bold, strategic, and world-weary as Virginia, head of Jane. The negative content is disappointing (Joy smoking pot, unnecessary profanity, non-explicit strip poker) but it doesn’t make the movie any less affecting.

Whether or not you will like Call Jane depends almost solely on your views on abortion. If you are pro-choice, you will see this movie as a battle cry for resistance and push-back against misogynistic fanatics in a post-Dobbs world. If you are pro-life, you will be grieved by the number of abortions portrayed in the film and will be further motivated to protect unborn lives from misguided activists. In many ways, it’s a Rorschach test for our times – we see what we expect to see. Credit to the producers: it’s certainly timely.