Pieces of a Woman
Some movies have opening sequences that are so staggering in their emotional, or visceral, impact that it’s sometimes difficult for the movie to maintain that for the duration of the movie. Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman” begins with such a sequence, a 23-minute cold opening that puts every puzzle piece on the table that the rest of the movie will connect, and is as devastating as any sequence we’ve seen in recent memory. While the rest of the film delivers thanks to three pretty terrific performances, Kata Wéber’s screenplay sets up some fairly predictable scenarios that lag in comparison to the opening we are faced with.
When the film begins, we see Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) getting ready to have their first child by getting a minivan. Actually, Martha’s mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), is helping them get it, because Sean is late getting there from his job. Right in that scene, we see a dynamic begin to form between the three that will be tested, and then twisted, during the movie, and it’s pretty compelling to watch all three actors work through these relationships, and where they lead. We then see Sean and Martha drive home, and settle in for the night. Martha begins to have contractions, though, and while their plan was to have a home birth, the woman who was supposed to be their midwife is unable to make it, so they are getting another woman they are not familiar with. When tragedy strikes during the birth, it becomes an emotional journey for both of them to recover.
One of the things that is very difficult for a film to do right is capture inner turmoil, and be able to tell a story with the emotions being bottled up without it getting melodramatic. “Pieces of a Woman” does it as well as anyone. Because it doesn’t pick up immediately after the tragedy, and doesn’t reflect a straight-line narrative from scene-to-scene (using dates to inform us of the passage of time), we see flashpoints in Martha’s and Sean’s respective journeys, and the ways that Mundruczó and Wéber build the evolution of the story from there is impressive and compelling. That it leads to a courtroom scene, wherein the midwife is on trial for her role in the tragedy, is what deflates much of the interest in the film, as a whole. It feels like a grafted-on piece of storytelling convention because, to stay entirely with these two characters, who both feel along with their pain, would be too depressing- there has to be a goal in mind, and while the resolution is an interesting end to the journey, it feels tacked on, and doesn’t really engage us.
The reason the beginning is so galvanizing in this film is because it is entirely experiential. The camera follows Sean and Martha through every moment of the tragedy, unbroken by edits, and it is riveting to watch- there are moments of beauty and love, but the abrupt turn it takes is heartbreaking and, thankfully, kept from us. We only see the aftermath, weeks after the event, and the way it has changed these characters, and it’s here when the triumvirate of Kirby, LaBeouf and Burstyn do some of the best work of their careers. There’s a monologue Burstyn has in the middle of the film that resonates through to the end, and seeing how each character is affected by it being said is one of the most riveting parts of the film. When these characters are quietly struggling, however, is where they deliver emotions we hope we never have to experience for ourselves. After that opening, it feels like we’re going through them along with them, making where it goes from there so frustrating. That’s a credit to the actors, whose work feels real and genuine, even if the film doesn’t always feel that way.
