Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Humbersi
The first must-see film of the year.
Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Davis P
If these walls could talk (1996) is a TV movie made in an episodic way. This movie examines the issue of abortion throughout very different time periods. The first time period that this movie takes on is 1952, before Roe v Wade, when abortion was illegal. The star of this first of three episodes is Demi Moore, one of my favorite actresses. Moore does a really good job with this role. You can really feel her raw emotion and her pain. It portrayed back alley abortion that women were unfortunately forced to undergo if they wanted to terminate a pregnancy. The next episode is set in 1974, just about a year or so after abortion was legalized in the Supreme Court. Sissy Spacek stars in this segment, I love her and her movies, and she does a great job here, very realistic portrayal of a woman already with 4 kids, mulling over the tough decision of whether or not to have an abortion. The third segment is set in what was modern day when this was released, 1996. This portion of the movie stars Anne Heche, Cher, and Jada Pinkett. I really loved this portion especially because of its realisticness and it's very raw portrayal. Heche was just perfect in the role, loved her. Pinkett was hard to love because of how her character is, but nevertheless she did a good job. Cher, who is both a fantastic singer and actress, does a great job at playing one of the most caring characters I've seen. I loved how they showed the realities women have had to go through simply to have an abortion. In each section, they continually painted such a raw portrayal of this issue and I applaud the filmmakers for doing so. 9/10!
Irishchatter
Honestly this movie was pretty crappy the way it's not in proper order as the second movie was!So in the first story, we see Demi Moore's character as a 1950's nurse and is wanting to terminate the baby because it seemed to be that she slept with her dead husbands brother. However I didn't realise that was the case at all as the storyline was going too quick for me. Then she gets a creepy sick doctor that didn't disinfect the equipment and just left her there losing a large amount of blood. The screen fades and raises like a million questions in your head. I was wondering the whole night did she die or did someone save her? This had given me a headache a and I felt really unsatisfied that it didn't show what happened.Anyways the second story wasn't as depressing but wasn't that great. The mother of 4 Barbara realises she's pregnant but doesn't want the baby since she has enough rascals in the house lol. I mean at the end when she decided to keep the baby, I thought to myself like shouldn't she talk more about this to her husband instead of arguing with him a lot. Like c'mon this story was meant to be set in the 70's not 50's so why was she hiding on wanting to get rid of the baby!To the third story, we see a young girl Christine finding out she's preggers by Craig T Nelsons sugar daddy character and disses him. Then she is arguing with Jada Pinketts character because she believes if Christine aborts the baby, she would go to hell. They go to the health clinic and are introduced by Cher's character who will be aborting Christines babies. Then this is where the storyline became stupid and awful. The young fella we had met earlier on became a psycho killing Cher's character, injuring another doctor and Christine. Then the scene fades, what kind of story was that??!! Why weren't even the police involved??The stories were rubbish, I don't know why this won 3 golden globes and the sequel only one?! This is one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life!
TheOtherFool
I watched If These Walls Could Talk II (which is much more accessible here in the Netherlands) before this one, but I must say I'm not too impressed with either of them.This one picks up the issue of abortion, telling three tales in three different periods. In the first, a woman is pregnant by her dead husbands brother. In the second, a mother of 4 who is finally ready to live for herself finds herself pregnant yet again. And in the third, a young woman is pregnant by her professor.The movie is showing us how abortion laws and ideas about it change over the years. Some scenes were hard to watch (in particular in segment no 1) and one of the movie's conclusion is that it's best that women have the ability to have an abortion in a clean and safe envirement.Although I agree with that, I still have major problems with the concept of abortion. I feel it's often an easy way out for people who should've known better (I'm aware of the many exceptions). But never mind that, I should value the movie for what it is.And it just ain't that good, I'm afraid. 5/10.
Dfredsparks
This film shows up as well now as I did when I first saw it in 1996 and was amazed. All those in the "demi moore can't act" camp should check out what she can do with the right material. She delivers an amazing performance in the first piece, giving those of us who dont remember a glimpse of the pre-Roe v Wade situation for women who found themselves in a less than desirable situation. Sissy Spacek is brilliant as ever in a lighter, though heartfelt and often ignored situation of a mom deciding whether one more child is what she wants. The final segment knocks me off my feet. Kudos to Cher for pulling together great actors and great stories.
