Most of the reviews of writer-director Sarah Polley’s Women Talking are full of reverent praise, which every critic knows is the required response to a beautifully shot film that takes on the evils of patriarchy. It’s based on a horrifying true story involving the repeated drugging and raping of Canadian women in a Bolivian Mennonite colony.

This was the inspiration for Miriam Toews’s 2018 novel of the same name. The film adaptation features a sterling cast of actors including Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand. McDormand also produced the film, working once again with a female director as she has in most of the work she produces, such as Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland (2020), Amy Berg’s Every Secret Thing (2014), and Lisa Cholodenko’s miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014). She’s dedicated herself to using her producing power to foster the careers of women in the film industry, which is most impressive, like pretty much everything McDormand does.

Because the film represents a serious and committed effort on the part of the filmmakers, I wish I could like it more. But I groaned just watching the preview, and it was all I could do to sit through the film in its entirety. Why did I have all this dread for seeing a depiction of oppressed and abused women?