Film: The Midwife's Tale

Title: The Midwife's Tale (1995)
Director: Megan Siler
Writer(s): Megan Siler
Actor(s): Stacey Havener, Gayle Cohen, Carla Milford, Anthony Shaw Abaté
Costume Designer(s): Korina Fitzgerald, Alex Yaeger
Rating: NR because it is not a big enough release. I would probably call it PG, for for one hanging and one interrogation (neither of which are at all graphic) and for the concept of abortion, which is kind of hard to have to discuss with the little ones.

The box for The Midwife's Tale describes the film as "The Princess Bride for alternative families." While this film definitely lacks the sharp dialogue, humor, and overall brilliance of PB, I see why the comparison was made.

The Midwife's Tale starts with a little girl looking at pictures of medieval men and women (including a "knightess") when one of her moms comes home and sits down to tell her a story. The story is about Lady Eleanore, the beautiful, sword practicing, and unsatisfied wife of Lord William. In William's land, the church is actively cracking down on practitioners of the old religion (not really specified, but they make some Beltane and female god references). One day, while out riding in the woods, Eleanore finds herself in a clearing where a beautiful midwife (Gwenyth) is using traditional folk remedies to help a woman in labor. Eleanore is fascinated and, when she finds out that she is pregnant, she calls for Gwenyth to come serve her in the castle.

At this point the plot becomes somewhat convoluted. Eleanore remembers her own mother dying in childbirth. There is an old midwife who is accused of consorting with the devil. Eleanore becomes convinced that her child will be stillborn and that she will die giving birth, and tries to convince Gwenyth to help her abort it. But at some point we pick back up, with Gwenyth fleeing so she won't be hanged for witchcraft, Eleanore being locked in a tower by her husband and hatching a plan to escape. With the help of her faithful maid and her kind (and possibly gay) cousin Sir Giles, Eleanore disguises herself as a man and rides off to find Gwenyth and live happily ever after.

The story is should have been simpler than it was, but the overall effect is very nice. It was clearly pretty low budget, but they worked well with what they had. The costumes were relatively decent, and clearly not the point of the movie. The whole look and feel of the film reminded me a lot of The Polar Bear King. I didn't enjoy how preachy it became when dealing with the big bad Christians, but given the point the director was making and the reality of the church's influence at that time I understand why they did it. And it was nice to see the plucky queer women be able to end up together and show their strength in a completely non-violent way. It's a very sweet film with a positive feminist message and is completely family appropriate.