Vanessa Kirby not only embodies the grief of a new mother, Martha, whose precious seconds holding her child after birth were the only moments she got. The actress inhabits every nuanced human emotion that accompanies such a tragedy. She does so in such a way that her performance doesn’t necessarily give us a front-row seat to every mother’s worst nightmare, but puts us firmly in Martha’s headspace.
Kirby is joined in the riveting performance department by her onscreen partner, Shia LaBeouf. The Peanut Butter Falcon star is every bit the supportive husband in the film’s gut-wrenching opening scene which chronicles the home birth delivery gone wrong. Those first Pieces of a Woman moments are brilliantly brutal. It is not only due to the fact that the film’s summary includes the outcome, but because of the immediate command both LaBeouf and Kirby demand from us the viewer.
We never get much of an explanation as to why the birth was desired to be at home by Martha, and Sean (LaBeouf). That is beside the point. It’s the mother’s choice. What cannot be shaken is that haunting sense that something is about to go horribly wrong. It’s just a question of how and why. The former is captured, painstakingly, by filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó. The latter is grappled with by everyone on screen for the remainder of the movie and done so in the most deeply personal of manners.
One other film that comes to mind that utilized an opening sequence as a haunting shadow over the entirety of the movie was Saving Private Ryan. Of course, one cannot compare the storming of the beach in France on D-Day to a home birth gone bad—apples and oranges. But as an emotional anvil utilized to set a story in motion, one can see how I was reminded of the Steven Spielberg Oscar-winning classic.
You may think you know how you’d respond to such a situation, but even after witnessing Pieces of a Woman, it is such an individualized situation. How does one respond to the worst nightmare scenario is stunningly laid out by writer Kata Wéber in her script. These are complicated souls and the variables that enter into their lives before and after tragedy, all add up to a gut-punch.
Mundruczó scored not only with the always awesome Kirby (Mission Impossible films and she was the best part of Hobbs and Shaw) and the supremely gifted LaBeouf, but the larger ensemble as well—led by screen legend Ellen Burstyn as Elizabeth, Martha’s mom. She’s garnering major Supporting Actress Oscar buzz for her role and it is easy to see why. Elizabeth is a complex Jewish mother whose guilt takes the most unique of forms, thanks to Wéber.
It’s easy to go to that Jewish mother guilt well as a tale-teller, but what is not so simple is crafting a character where such a sentiment has such a defined birth. Also, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships… toss that in the mix and we get the most distinctive of character development lessons. Elizabeth has another daughter, Anita (Iliza Shlesinger), and as Wéber has laid out in her superb script, how Anita and her mother interact and how Martha and her mother intermingle are completely different. Therefore, the guilt that rules the day between Elizabeth and Martha will serve as a narrative-defining through-line that provides the backbone to the entirety that is Pieces of a Woman.
Elizabeth repeatedly reports that she wants what’s best for Martha. Her desire to seek “justice” against the midwife (there is a criminal case that is percolating throughout the film) is always in the name of “what’s best” for her daughter. She even involves a cousin, Suzanne (Sarah Snook), to push for that justice within her role as a prosecuting attorney. Suzanne, in turn, also suggests that a civil case could easily result in a payout of “millions” for Martha and Sean.
What is so striking about Mundruczó’s film is that it is so unpredictable. There isn’t a single scene or plot point that one could say they saw coming—except for that opener. That is absolutely due to the tailored nature of the Wéber script. She has built characters and lived them during her creative process in such a way that there are palpable conflict and emotive rollercoasters and there is what the audience walks away feeling after inhaling Pieces of a Woman.
I know what some of you are thinking, “Duh, isn’t that what happens with every film?” Technically, yes, it should! But so much of what we as film journalists see, hundreds of times a year, are examples of stereotypes or tropes come alive. It helps to have a titanically talented trio delivering the goods, but what they were tasked with bringing alive had to be downright refreshing to these three thespians.
LaBeouf is having a Matthew McConaughey type renaissance. His work in his deeply personal Honey Boy is nothing short of a movie miracle. In Woman, he is embodying a man whose excitement for being a father knows no bounds. Sean is also a recovering addict. That is just one layer of the depth of this character that LaBeouf clearly relished filling out. His Sean supports Martha, and it is easy to see—simply through their performances—that LaBeouf was equally as supportive as a scene partner.
Witnessing Burstyn with a role this rich at this point in her career is truly a gift. The renowned actress delivers a maternal muse that may come across as selfish, sure. But upon learning her early life history, everything within the human emotional spectrum is on the table. Giving a talented actress with the decades of experience that Burstyn possesses that kind of part is a two-way street. Audiences get as much out of her turn as she does putting her craft to work in what we hope is not a career capper, but another career chapter.
Kirby is the headline here, and that’s not simply due to the fact that she’s the titular character. What the London-born actress delivers as Martha is nothing short of cinematic nirvana. There are powerhouse performances that go down in the annals of Hollywood history and yes, Kirby’s Martha will certainly find herself in that category. In recent memory, I’m reminded of what Brie Larson achieved with Room. What Kirby encapsulates in Martha isn’t drawn to be an inspirational figure for those coping with similar circumstances. The English actress presents a masterclass in capturing a singular individual’s response to every new mother’s worst-case scenario.
Grade: A