Pieces of a Woman | Film Review

I remember ticking the 'remind me' box on Netflix, so that I could watch this as soon as it came out. And that was based solely on how interesting the premise was.

When a home birth ends in tragedy, a woman finds herself picking up the pieces of a life that she no longer recognises.

Of course I knew that this film was going to be full of emotion and grief, but it's really hard to go into the film expecting the things that it hits you with.

The first scene in and of itself contains so much. It's half an hour of a harrowing, heart-breaking, almost chilling situation. But from an external, critical perspective, it is so well done in terms of writing, directing and acting. It goes from joy to despair so quickly that you almost get whiplash, and this scene is amazingly powerful even without the rest of the film backing it up.

The portrayal of grief was really interesting, mainly because we got to see it from the point of view of so many characters.

Speaking of characters, the characters we have in the film are Martha (Vanessa Kirby), Sean (Shia LaBeouf), Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn) and Eva (Molly Parker) amongst others, and these are all amazing, complex, 3-dimensional characters. Seeing their differing reactions to this situation was really powerful.

Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf have amazing chemistry. Not only do you believe that they're a couple, but you believe that they're going through this tremendous loss.

There were a lot of silent moments in the film, and in those moments it almost feels like you can hear the grief surrounding them. It's suffocating for the audience, and allows us to understand a tiny piece of what the couple are going through.

With a film like this, there is no antagonist, there is no villain, there is no one to blame. You can completely sympathise and empathise with every character, even if you ultimately disagree with some of their actions. 

Particularly with the character of Martha, you can't help but put yourself in her situation, particularly during the most difficult scenes. She is the character that we follow, she is the one we are tied to.

Vanessa Kirby's performance is the definite standout of the film. The other actors are a great support, but Kirby made this film exactly what it is, and I hope that she receives many accolades for her phenomenal performance.

There are many scenes in the film that may feel hard to watch. For me, though, the hardest scenes to watch were the trial scenes. From both Martha and Eva's point of view, those were the scenes that made me feel the saddest. It was like I had to step outside of Martha's bubble to truly feel the weight of her loss.     

Overall, this is a hard film to watch, and you may only be able to watch it once, if at all. But if you can watch it once, watch it.

7/10