Pieces of a Woman reminded me of Matrix: Reloaded. Don’t worry, I’ll park this car. Matrix: Reloaded isn’t a great movie: in fact, it’s pretty mediocre. However, inside a jumble mess is 12 minutes of perfection: one of the greatest car chase scenes committed to film. Pieces of a Woman similarly starts off with a bang, and unfortunately cannot sustain its high after its incredible start. Now if Vanessa Kirby had channeled her inner Carrie Anne Moss, maybe that would have been different: we’ll never know.
Exciting times abound for Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBoeuf). Vanessa’s about to go on maternity leave, pregnant with the couple’s first child. Martha schedules a home birth. When the baby’s coming, however, their midwife isn’t available, so they call in a backup, Eva (Molly Parker), to help Martha get the child into the world safely. And, unfortunately, there’s a reason this movie is called Pieces of a Woman.
The movie can be reviewed in 2 pieces: BT & AT, before title and after title. Before we see the title of the movie, we get Pieces piece de resistance: an emotionally riveting unbroken sequence where we witness the last stages of Martha’s pregnancy. The camera slows goes in and out of various rooms in the Sean/Martha household as an in pain Martha tries to hold it together while Sean and Eva support her. The slow but constantly movie camera puts you in a state of unease, as you see the whirlwind of activity and heavy concentration, with Sean and Eva suppressing their emotions to try to remain calm in front of Martha as she goes through the worst physical pain of her life. The concentration and excitement slowly turns to pure and utter dread for the audience as Eva starts giving signs that maybe this birth isn’t going as well as she is telling the couple. Eventually the emotional wall Eva puts up collapses when she loses control, and screams out to call 911 to get an ambulance there ASAP. Everyone is in top form here, with Molly Parker, Shia LaBoeuf, and Vanessa Kirby delivering amazing and unique performances. Then the ambulance rolls up, and BAM! title sequence. It’s a tour de force for director Kornél Mundruczó, and made me wonder if this movie should have just stopped at its title sequence and been a short film.
Part of that wonder is because of the mixed bag fallout of that tremendous opening act. As stunning as the first 20 minutes is, the later half of the film resorts too often to hammering the audience with just how devastating that night was to Martha, Sean, and Martha’s family including her mother (Ellen Burstyn). It’s always the plants and dishware that suffers. The twitchy energy LaBoeuf uses to play off of Kirby comes off overacty as the movie goes on. Sean’s arc in the rest of the film is mired in cliches that lead to a conclusion we all see coming. LaBoeuf is much better in the one on one scenes with Vanessa Kirby, where he dials it down. Same with Ellen Burstyn, who at worst comes off like a controlling ahole, and at her best a caring mom who tries but doesn’t know how to help her daughter. Seeing a pattern here? The saving grace of that second half is Kirby, a revelation here. That night was so traumatic, that Martha basically shuts down emotionally, essentially going through PTSD. In the fight or flight response, Martha chooses flight every time she comes close to feeling anything, content to just go through the motions of living. Kirby is amazing showing the internal conflict inside Martha, trying to suppress any feelings because of the pain she endured that night. The 2nd half is almost worth it for the scene where Martha is backed into a corner and HAS to confront what happened that night: you can’t take your eyes off of Kirby who’s feeling everything while trying to hold it together at the same time. It’s heart wrenching, but also sort of a sight of relief that she has confronted her trauma and can move on from it (though the movie didn’t need 893 endings to get there).
I will remember two things about Pieces of a Woman. That amazing short film before the title sequence will stay with me a long, LONG time, and Vanessa Kirby can now emotionally and physically kick my ass. I have high hopes for her future, and I hope this movie has not terrified her if she decides to have a child. I do know this: if I ever have a kid, I’m having it in a hospital.