Pieces of a Woman

May 28, 2021
4 min read

Updated: Jan 14, 2023

Starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn

Kornel Mundcruzo’s spiel of a mother losing her child in labour, Pieces of a woman is film about entailing the life of a woman who emotionally loses her attachment with her husband as well as her mother.

The opening scene, probably the most intense 22 mins I’ve ever experienced in cinematic history, exhibited Martha giving birth in real time. Benjamin Loeb, the film’s cinematographer, knew cutting a scene would just be another substitute to fill in for the missing tension that couldn’t be brought out otherwise. Instead, he wanted to make sure the uncertainty was felt throughout, forbidding the viewer to zone out. And so, the entire 22 min sequence was a one shot deal. Martha, played by Vanessa Kirby, is already distressed that Eva, her proxy midwife, was now going to carry out her home birth all by herself. The scene establishes a tender relationship between the couple as Sean, rendered by Shia LeBeouf, who aids Martha to ease her pain by taking her off the edge, cracks jokes to comfort her. Despite the scene having such hefty material, Kornel made sure that it doesn’t feel “heavy handed in its cinematic language” as he mentions. The scene comes off to be very smooth, appealing and impactful which manages to immerse the audience into the childbirth. All three characters in this scene are given parallel footage in order to lay emphasis on the importance of their presence in that particular moment. The outlook of all three actors at the situation is given precisely, for instance, Sean feels alienated, helpless and curious during the entire process because in spite of observing, there was only so much he could do to be of any assistance. However, Kirby was given the highest regard unquestionably considering the vital role she had to play. The camera would zoom into her burning face each time she’d have a contraction with great delicacy and move the slightest distance just as she made a movement. The excruciating pain could be felt just by looking at Kirby’s face that had turned red and hearing her screeching screams. Her acute expressions did just enough justice to not shifting the focus to Kirby’s body to feel the essence of the extreme exertion.This too would just make the viewers more visceral allowing them to envisage Kirby's body even if they can’t see. Hasty camera movement accelerates as the scene proceeds to cope with the heat of the situation too. The scene comes off as so overwhelming that it’s hard to not notice the paramount duration of time it takes up from the running time of the film. This scene certainly shrouds the rest of the film through its excellent screening.

It wasn’t very startling to see Ellen Burstyn’s acting to be excellently weighty considering the veteran she is at her job. She tramples on and transcends the role of Elizabeth Weiss as Martha’s mother, a lady who wants her granddaughter to say her truth of having lost her baby pinning it on their home delivery doctor. Her forbearing and stoic outlook towards the relationship between Martha and her husband is very discernible through her regular, pillory comments. She makes sure she doesn’t make serious assertions when together with the both of them, instead, spawns her opinions when she is alone with either of them. Her character knows sparking something as fragile as their sunken bond (between the couple) could lead to a big confrontation - which she tries to prevent. Her careful, intelligent eyebrow raises, eye twitches while talking to her son-in-law make it very obvious she detested him and his relationship with her daughter even though she doesn’t mention till the arousal of the complication in the movie.

Most tight scenes of the film take place in Elisabeth’s house, one of them being where she invites everyone over for a duck that she has cooked. As the scene moves along, Burstyn and Vanessa get into a huge argument. This starts with Martha accusing her of anyone having anything to do with what she wants to do with her body. While Martha strongly opposes the idea by practicing cruel linguistics and blatant voice, Elisabeth tries convincing her to do the opposite. Burstyn’s storytelling monologue becomes so heavy to watch as she harks back to the time she herself had a difficult birth during the Shoah, and being a Jewish. Throughout the dialogue, Elisabeth lays emphasis on each and every word to deepen the effect of her story and leave an impact on Martha to “lift her head” and fight for justice. She even broadens her eyes and eyebrows to show how much she meant each and every word she said. This close-up shot again lets us see how the actress plays with her wrinkly skin and frown lines to show that she was scarred and eyes sprinkled up again, to display how she was strong enough to overcome that obstacle. She comes off as a person who embeds more pity upon herself than she does for any other, a steel-plated survivor.

Maybe because the irrelevant subplots in the film such as that of Sean and Martha’s cousin does not build up into a plot making the movie very questionable. The unfinished notions on the American class system that remained unanswered sets the story in an even bleaker place making it very unappealing for the audience and even lets down other good factors about the movie such as the culminating speech by Martha in the courtroom (even though the connection between the mother and the daughter through their eye contact could be felt in real-time).The identical setting and season throughout the film also drains the monotony of the film and emotional tangents also digress away from the plot at certain bits of the movie.

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó

Produced by Kevin Turen, Ashley Levinson, Aaron Ryder

Screenplay by Kata Wéber

Based on Pieces of a Woman by Kornél Mundrucz & Kata WéberStarring

Starring