Pieces Of A Woman

UK Release Date. 7 January 2021
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 6 mins
Director. Kornél Mundruczó

Cast. Ellen Burstyn, Shia LaBeouf, Molly Parker, Vanessa Kirby.
Rating. 71%

Review.

Opening with an emotionally gripping and ultimately harrowing childbirth, Kornél Mundruczó's Pieces Of A Woman places the traumatic and painful experience of giving birth, and the death of a newborn, at the forefront of proceedings. The 22-minute-long continuous extended take is an intimate - although at times intensely uncomfortable - depiction of childbirth. Shot using a camera mounted on a gimbal, rather than a handheld camera, the constantly roving lens places the audience right alongside Martha (Vanessa Kirby), in the midst of her euphoria, anxiety and pain as the apparently unexceptional home birth quickly turns tragic. 

Episodic by design, Mundruczó delineates each of the film’s episodes with dates (over an eight-month period), as if to lend the fictional storyline an air of authenticity. We look on as Martha must navigate an arduous, complex and inherently personal period of grief, while her relationships with her husband (Shia LaBeouf) and her mother (Ellen Burstyn) fracture. Martha must also grapple with the prospect of facing her midwife (Molly Parker) in court, forcing her to relive her trauma all over again.

The success of Pieces Of A Woman must largely be credited to Vanessa Kirby and her phenomenal performance. In what could have all too easily become a heavy-handed, turgid melodrama, Kirby's portrayal of Martha transforms Pieces Of A Woman into an intimate character study. Indeed, Kirby carries the emotional burden of the narrative on her shoulders with an astounding portrayal of grief and isolation. While her husband Sean (an impressive LaBeouf) wears his agony on his sleeves - returning to cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine to escape - Martha turns entirely in on herself. It is impossible to take your eyes off her as she internalises her pain. She’s stripped raw - every nerve ending alive with pain - yet she is isolated, numb and frozen in her grief. Vanessa Kirby is nothing short of breathtaking in a career-defining performance - she deservedly received a 2021 Academy Award nomination for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Kirby lost out to Frances McDormand (Nomadland). 

However, the film is not without criticism. There are pacing issues. The first 45 minutes set the bar too high, and sadly, the second half of the film cannot live up to the preceding drama as the narrative begins to crumble. Sean’s relapse and subsequent affair are all too predictable, and the heavy-handed symbolism doesn’t quite fit with the austere, stark power of the rest of the film.

Pieces Of A Woman is an intensely personal story of one woman’s unimaginable experience of the death of her newborn child. Harrowing and heartbreaking, director Kornél Mundruczó explores the subject of grief and its impact on mental health and relationships. The film is by no means an easy watch, and it is emotionally draining, but at the same time, it is hard not to admire the brave depiction of such a traumatic subject matter.