Pieces of a Woman Review: Vanessa Kirby Stuns in Netflix Melodrama

Note: This review contains some spoilers for the film Pieces of a Woman. Please be advised that the film’s content – and by extension, this review – could be triggering for someone who has experienced the loss of a baby or pregnancy loss.

The first thirty minutes of Pieces of a Woman are agonizing to watch. The film’s marketing has made no attempts at hiding the devastating conclusion to Martha’s (Vanessa Kirby) home birth and while this does help mentally prepare you for the experience of watching the film, nothing can quite emotionally prepare you.

In the prelude of the film, as Martha and her husband Sean (Shia LaBeouf) prepare for their daughter’s arrival, life is utterly, numblingly ordinary. With the help of her mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), they invest in a family-friendly car. They hang up photos in the nursery. They are completely unaware of the tragedy that awaits them, but we, the audience are. 

It’s uncomfortable and for anyone who has experienced great loss, achingly familiar. After tragedy, or the kind of life events that upturn your entire world, you start to separate your life in two; there are the before-times and the after-times. Watching someone else’s “before” up close is terribly intimate.

The home birth scene is the highlight of the film, both providing an extraordinarily raw start to the story and setting the rest of the film up to be a disappointment.

The remaining hour never quite comes together as clearly or organically as it does in its first thirty minutes and its legal plot is clumsy, convoluted and sparsely sketched.

Tonally, those scenes play like they’re cobbled together from an entirely different movie and take valuable time away from the more compelling aspects of the movie. (Additionally, if fans of Succession are hoping for great moments from Sarah Snook, who plays the family’s lawyer, please look elsewhere. She looks great, but it’s a flatly written part).

Kirby and Burstyn are the reason to stick around for the latter half of the movie. Kirby, in particular, is astonishing and while the film demands so much of her, she delivers at every step.

In a matter of minutes, Martha’s life goes from one of ecstasy, having finally met her daughter, to one wholly blown apart. 

Kirby shows us all the shades of grief: its lack of logic, its rage, its deep ache, and its physical manifestations (the lingering pregnancy waddle and Martha’s frustration at the betrayal of her own body as it continues to produce milk are especially notable).

The camera tracks Kirby closely, capturing every nuance of her performance.

Burstyn is a force of her own. Admittedly, her character, a well-to-do mother and Holocaust survivor showing early signs of dementia, seems like it was written specifically as Oscar-bait. That doesn’t change the reality that Burstyn masters the hell out of the material, particularly her climactic monologue about survival.

Both women show the challenges of clinging to life when it feels like yours has been split apart and remind us that grief is as unique and personal as a fingerprint.

However, Pieces of a Woman isn’t merely a portrait of a family experiencing tragedy. It’s as much about Elizabeth and Martha’s loss — and experiences with motherhood — as it is about how we all process and perform grief.

There’s extensive discussion about what grief should look like as well as multiple observations on the effect grief has on those “on the outside.” Watching Martha’s coworkers clam up in her presence or Elizabeth’s friend bombard Martha with comforting condolences is uncomfortable but unfortunately rings true. 

Despite the fact that pain is universal, so often the people that love us don’t know how to respond. They gape, they avoid, they project, or they search for the perfect fix to make it all go away. All of this can feel even more isolating and the schism between the before-times and the after-times feel even larger.

Pieces of a Woman ultimately doesn’t have much in the way of answers about grief and moving on from trauma. It’s more of a mirror than anything else but what a harrowing mirror it is.

Stray observations:

• Though their screen time is slim, the supporting performances by Molly Parker, as midwife on trial Eva, and Iliza Schlesinger as Martha’s sister, Anita, are solid and effective. Parker handily telegraphs Eva’s guilt and anguish at her role in baby Yvette’s death and comedian Schlesinger is surprisingly at ease in her first serious role.
• Apples are a recurring motif throughout the film and the Act 3 reveal of Martha’s affinity for them is bittersweet. However, their final appearance, in the coda of the film — and really, the entire coda of the film — is too trite and unearned.
• It’s not entirely clear why Martha and Sean decided on a home birth in the first place, nor is it ever really clear how they were a compatible couple even before Yvette’s death. That context could have been valuable for the story, especially as things start to fracture.

What did you think of Pieces of a Woman? What questions did this raise for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Pieces of a Woman is currently available to stream on Netflix.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Kat’s Top 10 TV Movies of 2020