4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days is the point when Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) terminates her pregnancy in Romania when abortions were illegal. While she is the center of the picture it is her best friend, Otilia (Ananmaria Marinca) who helps her during this harrowing time that the director/writer Christian Mungiu focuses on.

The longest sequence takes place in a hotel room where the abortionist, Mr. Bebe, (Vlad Ivanov) not only performs the procedure but insists, and gets, Otilia as part of the 'payment'. To say he is a back alley scum would be putting it mildly.

This is not a pro or anti abortion film but it certainly raises the question if this is what the right wing wants to return to by over riding Roe Vs. Wade.

The film takes place in the 1980s in Romania under the final years of Nicolae Ceausescu's repressive 24 year regime. It is a dark, gloomy, black-market, depressing time and every frame of the film has a feeling of failure in it.

This should be a heart breaking film but is more of a cold one eliciting very little emotion from the audience even when showing the aborted fetus.

I think the major problem is that the focus is on Otilia and not Gabita leaving the audience detached from what is happening.

It does hold your interest while you are watching it but is forgettable as soon as you walk out of the theatre which in itself is a sad commentary.