Oddly enough, one of my resolutions for 2021 is to not write as much film criticism. The past three years of running my blog have been fantastic and have led me to so many wonderful sites and opportunities but lately, I have been seriously feeling burnout from the sheer stress of putting out quantities of pieces. I decided that I only want to write about films I see that really stick out and luckily, this year started off right with Kornél Mundruczó's Pieces of a Woman. This film is an absolutely emotional exploration into one woman's psyche and one that features some of the best performances from its leads that I had only been hearing good things about. From the direction to the cinematography to the clever, near lack of editing, this movie might not be the most joyous or celebratory film to start off the New Year with but it is one that really solidifies my feelings of cinema being the highest form of storytelling in our modern world.
Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a couple living in Boston who are expecting a child together. When Martha starts to go into labor, a midwife that they are not used to comes to help them out but an almost unspeakable tragedy occurs when the baby is born. Months after the untimely death, Martha struggles to live alongside her loss while the drama of her family life continues. This script, written by Kata Wéber, is definitely the highlight of this entire film, as it provides one of the most honest and emotionally powerful depictions of learning to live with loss that I have ever seen. The way that Wéber navigates the emotions and reactions of all of the different characters close to Martha was phenomenal and I was so consistently engaged with the dynamics between them all. What Pieces of a Woman does best, however, is showing how differently people handle grief at this level. Countless movies have done this before, of course, but when it comes to something as personal and heartwrenching as the loss of a newborn child, this film absolutely succeeds. Martha may have been distant and quieter while Sean may have been outraged that actions were not being taken but Wéber's story shows that both of these people are completely justified in their emotional states. People need different timelines for grief and they do so in various ways and this film is just brilliant at showing the contrast between its characters and how they learn to move on. The only issue I had with this film was the direction and pacing from Mundruczó. His direction is entirely solid as he handles the story in such a grounded way but I could not help but feel how badly this movie dragged on. It really did not need to be as long as it was and while there were plenty of interesting subplots and ideas that were explored, so many stretches of this film dragged hard. Just another case of a film that could definitely benefit from tighter editing.
Kirby's performance as Martha is one of the best I have seen in a while and while I mostly know her from the Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious franchises, she excels in this role much more than I could have ever. She takes this film and really makes it her own as she is able to traverse through the life of Martha with an impactful level of emotion that is rare to see in a performer. She is certain to be a favorite come Oscar season and she really deserves it - the dedication and nuance that Kirby puts into her character are honestly beyond belief. While the controversy and abuse from LaBeouf that has surfaced in the last few weeks is another story, his performance is also fantastic. LaBeouf really shines when he is put in these heavy-handed, supporting roles and he does such a wonderful job of embodying the character of Sean just as well. Watching Pieces of a Woman, I honestly never would have expected the visual storytelling to be nearly as compelling as the script. A film like this almost entirely relies on good screenwriting to engage its audience and while it did a great job of that, I was surprised with how beautiful this movie looked and felt as well. The cinematography from Benjamin Loeb is stunning and draws you into this story more than anything else in the film. The entrancing long takes and wide shots leave so much room for the story to breathe when the audience needs it and I just fell in love with the way Loeb shoots this movie; especially in the first half an hour or so when Martha is preparing to give birth. The nearly 20-minute take of just Martha and Sean in and around their apartment as the baby is getting ready to come was riveting and draws in its audience and never lets them go. Once I was finally able to breathe from that incredibly tense sequence was when I realized how well the cinematography worked for this story. Many could understandably find the camera choices to be corny but I genuinely loved the choices made through Loeb's lens.
Pieces of a Woman is sure to be a smash amongst Academy voters and it rightfully deserves that - a film about a sensitive subject such as this done with such grace and well-intentioned meaning is always a surefire winner. While I might not have been so on board with some of the creative choices made along the way, Mundruczó crafts a beautiful portrait of grief and acceptance that is difficult not to be moved by and one bolstered by the excellent performances from its cast. And what could be better than Benny Safdie hitting a vape for no apparent reason?
My Rating: ★★★½
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