Never Rarely Sometimes Always

When I lived in Ealing, I used to live near an abortion clinic which found itself in the news frequently. It was often a site for anti-abortion protestors to sit outside and harass women going in making, I imagine, an incredibly difficult decision in difficult circumstances. The circumstances of each woman are going to be different woman to woman and whilst there is now a buffer zone in place the presence of those protestors mirrors a later scene in Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

The title is taken from a question and answer session Autumn endures whilst at a New York clinic. It is this scene where the film is at its most powerful, and Eliza Hittman’s decision to focus on Autumn’s face, etched with emotion and pain from the tough questions and painful past memories, makes the scene so emotional. The use of close ups helps us really get into the core of Autumn’s emotion turmoil and the performance by newcomer Sidney Flanigan is incredibly raw and sensitive that throughout you’d wish you could go in and offer words of comfort and support.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a film about class (a light is shone on the costs of healthcare to lower income citizens), women’s rights, and their rights over their own bodies. It’s a film about safe access to abortions for all, a respect for the woman’s privacy and the respect for the woman’s final decision. Never should a woman have to travel to a major city to have an abortion when she should be supported in her own town. Travelling all the way to New York is such a daunting prospect that the city is shot as this big, bustling, busy and sometimes even unnerving place, which I imagine it must be for a small-town girl making a massive decision.

In addition to being a story about women’s rights, it’s a story about female friendship. Skylar (Talia Ryder), Autumn’s cousin, helps her through the entire process and goes through similar experiences of a dangerous city and lecherous men. It helps that both Ryder and Flanigan give incredibly natural performances to convincingly play their grounded and real characters . Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an understated film that’s low in melodrama, subtle and with a fiery anger and understanding Eliza Hittman tells the story of three women's expirences, making it into one whole narrative. It’s hard not to watch this film without feeling moments of anger and disbelief but the tale of female friendship is a heart-warming one also.