Early in this documentary, Alan Dershowitz tells a joke. A married couple goes to a rabbi with a problem. The husband tells his side of the story and the rabbi says, “You’re right.” The wife tells her side and the rabbi says, “You’re right.” The rabbinical student, who has been witness to all this, turns to his teacher and says, “Rabbi, they can’t both be right.” And the rabbi says, “You’re right.”
This movie is “about” abortion but it is really about ambiguity in life. Amusing, yes, that a film about “gray areas” should be shot in black and white. While ample time is devoted to the lunatic fringe on either side, the real heart of this movie is the middle. The people face to face with real personal choices, not abstraction. A Greek chorus of scholars (Dershowitz, Chomsky, Peter Singer and more) all agree on one thing: there are no absolutes.
Kaye’s very unique documentary (both in substance and in form) isn’t easy too watch – there is a lot of raw emotion and, alarmingly, a lot of frank medical footage – but it is quite a marvelous piece of work. If this film doesn’t make you take stock of your beliefs you simply must not have any.
