Gardening Tools and Immoral Pleasure-Seekers

Earlier this week I dipped back into my to-watch list and finally fired up a Kanopy account via my library so I could watch Stonewalling. It’s a plot you’re familiar with: young woman and her boyfriend struggling by with odd jobs, trying to finish school but not feeling very enthusiastic about it, when a surprise pregnancy happens and she does what you expect…lie to her boyfriend about getting an abortion while agreeing to give the baby to a third party in exchange for forgiveness of her mother’s tort debts stemming from a stillbirth in mom’s home-run gynecology clinic.

You know, standard.

Stonewalling is suffocatingly steeped in its vibes, and I mean that as a compliment. There are very few, if any, motion shots. We are usually sitting in one placing watching characters move across the scene and Lynn, the protagonist, is often placed conspicuously near the edges of the shot. Lynn is adrift, not passionate about her boyfriend or about school, unwilling to get off her phone and socialize, unable, initially, to even make a decision herself about her pregnancy. I found her incredibly frustrating at the start, because she comes off as so passive. Even her body language is: she lolls about, limbs akimbo, head tipping to one side or another as if it’s too much effort to even support her own body weight.

But Lynn’s struggle is also weighty. This Chinese film is making a pointed commentary on China’s gig economy and the workers trapped within it. Lynn and her family aren’t homeless, they always have food, but they’re also always fumbling for their next money-making scheme, the next job that’s going to keep their head above water. There’s no time to rest, there’s no comfort, just survival.

The film is also highlighting the commodification of women’s bodies, sometimes the only or best thing they can sell. Even before she learns of her pregnancy, Lynn is venturing into an egg-selling scheme, which involves a lot of reassuring neurotic potential buyers of her intelligence, beauty, health, and all the other things these wealthy customers demand for their potential future babies.

In short, it’s a technically good film. However, there aren’t five collective minutes of it which are enjoyable to experience, and it runs 2½ hours, which makes it difficult to recommend. It’s dull and plodding, just like Lynn’s life, and I don’t think she smiles once the entire film. It reminded me a bit of Nomadland in its relentless, boring misery. Maybe break this one into chunks if you go for it.