Directed by Kornel Mundruczo

Starring – Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn

The Plot – Martha (Kirby) and Sean (LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with her husband and her domineering mother (Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife, whom she must face in court. A deeply personal, searing, and ultimately transcendent story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Rated R for adult language, sexual content, graphic nudity and brief drug use

Pieces of a Woman | Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Riveting introduction. Mundruczo wastes little time in setting the stage and moving all of the pivotal pieces, in an opening twenty minutes that is every bit thrilling in presentation, as it is emotionally gripping in what transpires. Not only is this a perfect introduction for what the rest of the movie entails thematically, conjuring up a loveletter to female resiliency, but also one that visually captures how he consistently bottles up the energy in his interactions. As with most of his respective filmography, Kornel calls upon a flexibility in editing scheme, which in turn manufactures some unnerving long take sequences that immerses us vividly in the chilling atmosphere that overcomes the characters throughout a majority of their scenes. It sets a precedent that is followed creatively, but never as enthrallingly to the meaning that this paralyzing event shapes our characters and the direction of our story, for better or worse.

– Passage of time. Because this is a film revolving around a year in the life of a woman’s coming to terms with the single biggest loss in her life, the movie’s storytelling scheme takes on a series of dates and seasonal changes that is conveyed in the form of some detailed production designs. Throughout the film, we spot overgrown plants, which articulate the couple’s disconnect from life moving around them, as well as the lack of attention paid to the cleanliness of the apartment they live in, which seems more unsorted throughout the progression of the film. It’s this kind of attention paid to the movie’s visual capacity that I truly appreciate just as much, if not more, than the emotional ones because they constantly maintain the kind of weight in circumstances that this couple are haunted with relentlessly, making a simple household chore feel like an insurmountable task in the eye of the tortured.

– Complex cinematography. The same visionary who intoxicated us with entrancing fever dream visuals in 2018’s “Mandy”, pitches us a challenging, meaningful composition of angles and camera movements that colorfully illustrate a sense of atmosphere within the environments they sift through. Benjamin Loeb uses varied framing devices between his two leads that not only illustrates the disconnect between them, but also the isolation which we feel because of how tight the claustrophobic proximities of the framing closes in around them. In addition to this, his choreography through abrupt character movements and long take meandering sequences throughout hallways and doors garners a professionalism that maintains focus in interactions without truly compromising or influencing the spontaneity of human movements.

– Naturalistic dialogue. Part of what makes these characters feel believable as lived-in people is the smooth evolution and patient flow of the movie’s lines, which breed exposition in ways so subtly that you initially dismiss them as filler. One such example deals with a throwaway line involving Lebeouf’s character angry at something that transpired in the previous scene, and Burstyn’s character telling him “He’s going to relapse if he’s not careful”. This not only tells us that his character is an addict, but also the demons from his past that ultimately weigh heavily in the movements of his future. This is a line that doesn’t ever really come into play again within the creative direction of the film, just rather a moment of depth in characterization that elaborates at the backstory of the character before we knew them, outlining a bigger picture in life that doesn’t cater just to what we see transpire in the film.

– Deeper metaphors. While nothing on the level that requires deep thought or moments of self-speculation, the evolution of the characters in the film does zero in on a couple of meticulously placed images and objects in the film that plays to a wider meaning of what it parallels in material. Shia’s character is a worker on a road crew who builds bridges, and while that idea is easy to grasp in concept with where it pertains to the representation of connection from one side to the next, the actual reference that it pulls from in the film attains the kind of symbolism that was anything but expected within the context of the scene and character it represents. Nothing ever feels pretentious or out of place in the sense of the film nor the context of the sequence it accompanies, and instead gives us moments of psychological escape that attacks these characters as universal figures instead of the intimate captives we experience throughout.

– Grief dissection. In cutting through the hefty realities of what Martha entails, the film is able to grasp at some stern social commentary on grief that raises awareness not only into the eye of the beholder, but also in those who shape it selfishly in ways that play into their narrative. On the former, we experience the post-partem of Martha, complete with the longing that is only made worse in everyday interaction with various children and parents whom she envies with a wound that is still very fresh in the time frame of this film. On the latter, it’s the insensitivity that those closest to Martha often approach and attack her with, feeding out agendas of their own without considering the frailty of the person in question being asked. It belittles this woman to a way that we deeply empathize with for the way no ones best interests ever feels about her, and articulates a general isolation made even louder when she shares a scene with someone else.

– Meaningful title. “Pieces of a Woman” very much alludes to this idea of Martha losing pieces of herself, and her relationships being affected by the event in question during the film’s introduction. Through the relationships with her significant other, to the relationship with her mother, and even the one with her sister, we watch this emotional journey that depicts the tragedy in her life feeling like the rock bottom of Martha’s situation, but also in the many scattered pieces from said occurrence that she rebuilds throughout, on her way to tranquility and acceptance. Also, the word “Woman” makes Martha feel every bit ambiguous as she is isolated by the peers that she continuously distances herself from. This solidifies that single scope protagonist that a movie this intimate truly requires, brought together with a title that is easy, precise, and enveloping of everything that the three act pertains to.

– Spell-binding performances. Vanessa Kirby? Where have you been hiding. We’ve seen the physical stature of this badass actress with roles in “Hobbs and Shaw” and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”, but this is really the first time we indulge in her emotional compass, and it’s one that brings back astonishing results in terms of what she’s able to capture as Martha. Plagued by an invisible weight that plays so candidly in her demeanor and body language, Kirby continuously captures our attention with a haunting turn that brings forth moments of tears and suspense in a woman as unpredictable as the events that now define her. In addition to Kirby, LeBeouf once again hands in another complex and captivating lead as Sean. Likewise, Ellen Burstyn deserves nothing short of an Oscar nomination for the brilliance with long-winded diatribes she occasionally breaks into during moments she’s trying to hold her family together. Rounding out this gifted ensemble is cameos from everyone from Illiza Schlesinger, to Sarah Snook, to Benny Safdie of the now legendary Safdie Brother directors, to even Jimmie Fails, the man responsible for so much of my tear-filled resonation during 2018’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”. All of them maintain a memorable presence on the film, supplanting characters that perfectly fit where the script requires them to.

NEGATIVES

– Audible nuisances. This is both in the sound design and the musical score for the film, which offering jarringly disappointing results in what they are trying to accompany. On the music, the compositions are fine enough from legendary composer Howard Shore, whose work here springs for a piano-driven majority that unfortunately swells at the most meandering times. In my opinion, the music takes away from the integrity of the performance and environmental element of the atmosphere, and would’ve been better accentuated with a more reserved approach to what it was enhancing on-screen. On the post production work for the movie’s sound design, the imbalance of levels from scene to scene does conjure a naturalistic quality to an influential environment, but it does come with an audible sacrifice that jumbled my intake in the same vein as last summer’s “Tenet”. In my opinion, this film should be watched with subtitles, because upon second watch I discovered that there was surprisingly a lot that I missed along the way of my first, and it better helped to fill in the gaps of mumbling that I initially discussed as inconsequential.

– Third act faults. This is the area of the film that feels a bit convoluted for my taste, considering the first two acts focuses almost entirely on this intimate dissection into the experiences of this lonely woman forced to grasp at the tender strings of grief. For one, the resolution itself feels a bit too clean and convenient for the measure of drama that was promised in the first half of the film. In my opinion, a level of ambiguity in both Martha and the legal case surrounding her would’ve done fine in capturing the open-ended circumstance of life that this movie seems destined for. In addition to this, some of the character motivations during this final act were a bit abrupt, and lacking clarity within the context of everything we have been shown from them to that point. Some arc’s are severely lacking time and attention, others feel like they have too much, and don’t exactly fit into the progression of the direction of the story, and overall there’s this lack of emphasis from everything mentioned that undersells the dramatic impact of the climax, ending things flat when compared to the roller-coaster that two hours previously took us on.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+