'Happening' review: Harrowing, timely drama

“Happening” may seem like a euphemistic title for a film about a pregnant woman trying to obtain an abortion. It’s a subject that movies tend to dance around, sometimes letting their conflicted heroes off with a convenient miscarriage, sometimes discreetly closing the clinic door before the camera can follow. A warning to viewers accustomed to such niceties: “Happening” is not one of those movies.

Based on a memoir by Annie Ernaux, “Happening” takes place in France, in 1963, when abortion was illegal and premarital sex its own kind of moral crime. Anne, a whip-smart student at a pre-university program — she hopes to become a professor and perhaps a writer — is one of many young women walking this societal high-wire, and when she misses her period we can almost feel her falling. Anamaria Vartolomei, an excellent French-Romanian actor, plays Anne with a convincing mix of horror, panic and steely determination.

“Happening” is structured as a horror film, a deliberate choice on the part of writer-director Audrey Diwan (“Losing It”). Anne’s pregnancy becomes a ticking clock of dread as her options dwindle: Home remedies fail, doctors snub or even foil her, close friends turn their backs. As for the men in Anne’s life, they’re a mixed bag. The hard-driving Professor Bornec (Pio Marmaï) mistakes his star pupil’s slipping grades for laziness, while a fellow student, Jean (Kacey Mottet-Klein), proves helpful but not exactly heroic. These men aren’t villains, exactly, but their empathy is limited. Anne’s problem simply isn’t their problem.

The timing of this movie’s release, as the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade, might seem uncanny, but “Happening” is the latest in a string of movies and television shows that have tackled this subject, either obliquely or head-on. Nearly all these titles were written and directed by women.

None are as unflinching as “Happening.” Anne’s journey leads her, finally, to a backroom abortionist — and this time, the camera spares us nothing. Whether you condone this film or condemn it, “Happening” presents a brutal reality.    

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman