PIECES OF A WOMAN (2020/1) - For what is largely a rather quiet film about grief, PIECES OF A WOMAN certainly grabs the viewer by the throat from the get go. After a few brief expository scenes we are thrust into a long, grueling moment by moment depiction a difficult childbirth via a mid-wife (Molly Parker). Few details are spared as the emotions play out in real time in a single unbroken take. When it ends, a half hour in, the Title Card appears. It's almost a relief after the unsparing intensity.
Filmmakers Kornel Muncuczo (Director) and Kata Weber (Writer) certainly keep the tension up for the remainder of the movie, but from then on its more of the simmering variety. Vanessa Kirby plays Martha the expectant mother who is an office professional in Boston and comes from a family of means. Her partner, Sean (Shia LaBeouf), is a construction worker. The tragic events of that night take an immediate and profound toll on their relationship as Martha retreats more and more into a shell. Martha's mother (Ellen Burstyn) isn't shy about getting involved in their relationship and all the legal consequences at stake.
While there is a linear plot, it really is the “Pieces” of Martha's inner being that are more at stake here. Weber's screenplay and Muncuczo's direction is direct and uncompromising. There are a couple of scenes that uncomfortably bring to mind LaBeouf's real-life personal scandals and the actor and Kirby never flinch in their raw intensity. Whatever comes of the LaBeouf's accusations, he does deliver a strong performance. Burstyn has a stunning sequence where she again shows why she's one of Cinema's acting treasures.
Still, this is Kirby's movie. Benjamin Loeb's fine camerawork captures seemingly every nuance in her acting. There are several long takes in the movie (not just that opening) and they bring an immediacy. It's simply devastating to watch. The plaintive score by Howard Shore is moving without calling attention to itself. The Montreal for Boston location work is better than most of these Canada for the Northeast substitutions (although a couple of European locales aren't quite so).
Muncuzo's 2015 WHITE GOD is one of the more memorable films in recent memory (it used the treatment of dogs as an allegory for the immigrant refuge crisis in Hungary) and he has made another powerful picture here. Writer Weber based this screenplay on a similar personal experience and the verisimilitude is felt deeply in her crafting of the material. PIECES OF A WOMAN isn't easy to watch, but, all due credit to Kirby, Muncuzo and Weber for their combined achievement. Devastating.
Filmmakers Kornel Muncuczo (Director) and Kata Weber (Writer) certainly keep the tension up for the remainder of the movie, but from then on its more of the simmering variety. Vanessa Kirby plays Martha the expectant mother who is an office professional in Boston and comes from a family of means. Her partner, Sean (Shia LaBeouf), is a construction worker. The tragic events of that night take an immediate and profound toll on their relationship as Martha retreats more and more into a shell. Martha's mother (Ellen Burstyn) isn't shy about getting involved in their relationship and all the legal consequences at stake.
While there is a linear plot, it really is the “Pieces” of Martha's inner being that are more at stake here. Weber's screenplay and Muncuczo's direction is direct and uncompromising. There are a couple of scenes that uncomfortably bring to mind LaBeouf's real-life personal scandals and the actor and Kirby never flinch in their raw intensity. Whatever comes of the LaBeouf's accusations, he does deliver a strong performance. Burstyn has a stunning sequence where she again shows why she's one of Cinema's acting treasures.
Still, this is Kirby's movie. Benjamin Loeb's fine camerawork captures seemingly every nuance in her acting. There are several long takes in the movie (not just that opening) and they bring an immediacy. It's simply devastating to watch. The plaintive score by Howard Shore is moving without calling attention to itself. The Montreal for Boston location work is better than most of these Canada for the Northeast substitutions (although a couple of European locales aren't quite so).
Muncuzo's 2015 WHITE GOD is one of the more memorable films in recent memory (it used the treatment of dogs as an allegory for the immigrant refuge crisis in Hungary) and he has made another powerful picture here. Writer Weber based this screenplay on a similar personal experience and the verisimilitude is felt deeply in her crafting of the material. PIECES OF A WOMAN isn't easy to watch, but, all due credit to Kirby, Muncuzo and Weber for their combined achievement. Devastating.
