Movie Review - Pieces of a Woman

This is an adaptation of a stage play by Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó and his partner, Kata Wéber. Mundruczó has had several films premiere at the Cannes Film Festival over the decades. His film White God (2015) was the official submission from Hungary to the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. It didn't get nominated nor make the shortlist, a decision with which I agreed. I wasn't impressed with White God. This is presumably though his first English-language film or at least his first set in the United States. Like with White God, there are certain scenes or moments that are memorable or definite talking-points. With White God, it was more about a stunt that he pulls off, here it's mainly about the acting performances, including such in the opening sequence, which is a long, continuous take. Other than that, I again wasn't that impressed with the work of Mundruczó here.

Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) stars as Martha Weiss, a woman living in Boston. It's not sure what she does for work, but she has a business office downtown in a high-rise building. She seems to be well off financially. She also seems to come from a fairly wealthy family, which seems to consist of her widowed mother and sister. At the start of the film, Martha is very pregnant and has gone into labor, but she and her partner have chosen to have the baby in their home with the help of a midwife in lieu of a hospital. Unfortunately, hers proves to be a very difficult and in fact troubled birth. Yet, ultimately, Martha never makes it to a hospital.

Shia LaBeouf (Honey Boy and Transformers) co-stars as Sean Carson, the aforementioned partner to Martha. He's called her partner and not her husband, so it doesn't seem as if they're married. Yet, they do seem to live together. However, his job is that of a construction worker and currently as a bridge-builder, which doesn't seem to afford him a lot of money. He's certainly not the breadwinner between the two. In fact, he requires help from Martha's family, specifically her mother, in order to purchase a car, a van actually for their future family. He's self-described as not intellectual, rough and boorish. All of which are true.

The film focuses on the eight months that follow Sean and Martha's pregnancy. The film demarcates seven specific dates or time stamps. We see appear on screen: Sept. 17, Oct. 9, Nov. 7, Dec. 21, Jan. 13, Feb. 5, March 22 and April 3. With the exception of the first date, which is presumably the day of their baby's birth, none of the other dates feel necessary for us to know. The assumption is that when we see a new date appear, everything that proceeds occurs solely on that day, but that can't be the case. Often what's depicted are several days from that point. It's a nitpick, but endemic of what might be wrong with this film. Its attempts to be specific only end up being rather vague.

As mentioned, what Martha does for work is vague. There are certain relationships that aren't clear at first. There are other relationships that aren't really explored with any depth. The film concludes with a court trial, involving the midwife named Eva Woodward, played by Molly Parker (House of Cards and Deadwood). The details of which and the arguments for which aren't established to any compelling degree. Sean proceeds to have an affair, but no real or deeper exploration of that relationship is really had. Apparently, he's a hard drug user, but there's no exploration of that. It's not clear if he has any family of his own outside of Martha's family. By the end, the film jumps forward to an image of a tree and I wasn't clear of what significance it had.

Kirby's performance has gotten a lot of notice and her role here has the potential of being nominated for an Academy Award. If she did receive such a nomination, it wouldn't be undeserved. Her physical endurance or at least her portrayal of physical endurance and pain, particularly in the opening sequence is nothing short of incredible. Her stoic and depressed nature with bouts of anger throughout the middle chunk of the film, leading to her catharsis and emotional devastation toward the end, are equally so. Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Exorcist) who plays Martha's mother also gives a cathartic and emotionally devastating performance, at least in one scene that's notable as well.

There is a very awkward and uncomfortable scene in the middle that bears comment. Kirby and LaBeouf have what could be called a sex scene or almost sex scene in the middle of this film that's rather intolerable and quite frankly horrifying. It could almost be classified as a sexual assault. Unfortunately, this comes after a lawsuit from musician FKA Twigs who claimed that LaBeouf sexually assaulted and abused her in real life. I'm not sure if knowing this factoid helps or hurts one's viewing of this scene and the film writ-large. It was certainly difficult to watch but undeniably Kirby and LaBeouf give dedicated performances while in it.

Rated R for language, sexual content, graphic nudity, male full-frontal and brief drug use.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 7 mins.

Available on Netflix.