by Shane Conto
Netflix found the perfect way to start off 2021, right? Who would want to watch an extremely depressing and heartbreaking film that will leave you in pieces? Well…when it is this good, you certainly should! Pieces of a Woman is a new drama that centers around the tragic loss that leads a woman, her marriage, and her familial relationships into a spiral. Sounds like a film that will give you a great pick me up, right? Probably not. It will deliver a powerful and moving emotional empathetic journey with this woman though.
What makes Pieces of a Woman so effective in delivering such a poignant emotional experience?
Director Kornel Mundruczo certainly has plenty to do with that. One of the most impressive aspects of this film is how engrossing and moving it is. Mundruczo takes every opportunity to create a feeling of voyeurism allowing the audience to feel like they are in the room witnessing these dramatic and impactful sequences. Benjamin Loeb, the cinematographer who helped create one of the most impressive visual spectacles of recent years in Mandy, lends his talents to this film and focuses on long and engrossing takes. The first 30 minutes of the film rely on only a few cuts as the audience follows along with a stressful and tragic childbirth. This opening sequence is so incredible that it almost leaves the bar too high for the rest of the film. Howard Shore provides a moving and emotive score that is seemingly effortless in the way that it builds emotion. Mundruczo pulls everything together to create some of the most emotionally resonant scenes in all of 2020 cinema. There are a few moments that feel considerably less engaging in comparison but there is definitely another force of a scene right around the corner at any given moment.
But can the script that lays out these events match the technical expertise brought to the film?
Thematically, Kata Weber layers this script with plenty of layers when it comes to grief. How will a woman deal with the loss of a newborn child? How will the marriage that conceived that child live on? How will a family, who argued against the means for which the birth was performed, stay together if they cannot keep their judgment in check? How will this affect the fractured relationship between the new mother and her own controlling and judgmental mother? As I said…many layers. The opening sequence of the film plays out perfectly with well structured beats setting up the targets pay off. The incredibly unnerving and challenging confrontations between characters that flesh out contempt is hard to watch. One particular sequence of misguide love and lust is so horribly perfect that it is so close to being too hard to even watch. Are there some threads in the story that feel like they could have been done without and others that lack a bit of pay off? There are, but it is hard to soil the incredible level of craft of most of the film.
Can there possibly be anything else to drive home these challenging and devastating emotions?
The performances are key. Vanessa Kirby gives a career launching performance that is full of rawness. Whether it is simulating the birth of a child, avoiding unwanted sexual advances, or coming to verbal blows with her family on scene, Kirby leaves it all out in the open. She is a live wire that is magnetic to watch. Shia LaBeuof has proven time and time again that he is so much more than Even Stevens and the whiny kid from Transformers. The authenticity and intensity are on display at every moment. His performance is so believable that one particular scene made me almost walk away from the scene because it was that discomforting. Ellen Burstyn delivered another show-stealing supporting performance with one incredible story that just might nab her some awards.
After all of these words, are you convinced that you should take a ride on this emotional rollercoaster?
This film does not feel like your standard American drama. There is plenty of time to breath and the atmosphere never rises above somber. Where the story may lag at times, the emotional payout delivers tenfold. This is by far one of the most emotional and tragic films of the year. But don’t take that as a reason to run away. Hop onto Netflix and dive in.
Grade: B+