2021’s The Order of Rights tells the story of two teenagers.
Emma Stein (Emma Elle Roberts) is artistic and creative and we know this because she’s working the lights for the current high school theater production. I have to say that I did a lot of high school theater and I always really disliked having to deal with the members of the backstage crew, They were always worried about something. Whenever I was waiting to make my entrance, I always knew some crew person was going to wander up and start talking to me about the lighting cues. And I would just be like, “Just make sure I look good.” Wow, that was mean of me. I feel kind of bad now.
Anyway, back to the movie….
Ethan (Ben Davies) is a jock. When know he’s a jock because he always wears his baseball cap backwards. For Ethan and Emma it’s love at first sight. Ethan is also a Christian and he feels really guilty after he and Emma give into temptation and have sex. He feels even more guilty after Emma informs him that she’s pregnant.
Ethan talks to his parents (Matthew Welling and Julie Silcott). They tell him that, before he was born, they found themselves in a similar situation. They weren’t married at the time so Ethan’s mother decided to have an abortion. They have always felt that they made a mistake. When they learn that Emma’s mother is pressuring Emma to get an abortion, they hire a lawyer (Richard Cutting) to file a civil case against Emma, claiming that Emma is denying her baby its rights under the 14th amendment.
The case becomes national news. We get a montage of real-life conservative podcasters and talk show hosts discussing the case. The second half of the movie takes place almost exclusively in the court room and if you enjoy scenes of people saying, “Objection!” and a judge replying with “Overruled,” rest assured that this film is full of them. Each side is given a chance to make its case. That said, it’s hard not to notice that Ethan’s lawyer is extremely earnest while Emma’s lawyer is extremely smug.
Much like One Nation Under God, this is a film that was largely made to annoy liberals and, judging from the reviews left on Letterboxd, it certainly managed to do that. It’s really not any more heavy-handed than most mainstream movies about abortion. It’s just, in this case, the film comes at things from the pro-life point of view as opposed to the pro-choice point of view. It’s a film that’s full of awkward scenes and there are quite a few performances that don’t work, especially during the film’s first half. The actors playing Emma’s theater friends offer up some of the worst line readings that I’ve ever heard. That said, Emma Elle Roberts probably gives a better performance than the film deserves and, regardless of what else you may want to say about the movie, it doesn’t turn Emma into a cardboard villain. In the end, one feels very sorry for her as both sides are just using her pregnancy to push their own agenda.
This film was released in 2021. A year later, Roe v Wade was overturned, making The Order of Rights feel very dated indeed.
