Pieces of a Woman (2020)

Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Stars: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn
Runtime: 126 minutes

Synopsis: When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Verdict: Kornél Mundruczó's "Pieces of a Woman" opens with an emotionally heavy bang. The first 30 minutes of the film are a proper rollercoaster to get through, topped with a masterfully executed 23-minute long uninterrupted birth scene. The intensity is high as we follow a couple who opt to have their child in the comfort of their own house, only to be met by unexpected difficulties that will define the rest of their lives.

My worry with movies that start off on such a high note is simple: they rarely succeed in maintaining the bar they set for themselves early on. As a result, and even if what they offer next is relatively well crafted, it always pales in comparison to the expectations they set for their audience in the opening act. And that was, unfortunately, the case with the Vanessa Kirby-led drama.

As the screen fades to black to display the title of the film and signify the end of the first act, I would recommend taking a minute to breathe and fully take in what you had just witnessed. Because despite dealing with some heavy themes later on including guilt and loss, the film fails to reiterate the emotional impact that was incredibly well captured initially. Instead, we get pieces of a movie that don't always fit together, at times settling for the most obvious route and at others deviating into something I just found uninteresting. As the credits started rolling, I was struck with a feeling of unfinished, a sense of disappointment as if I had just jumped into a kiddy pool instead of an ocean. A lot of depth was frustratingly left unexplored due to the narrative insisting on juggling many things at once instead of focusing on one particular subject and properly the film around it.

Shia LaBeouf played Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn was given the chance to shine in one or two scenes, and, while she delivered the most interesting performance out of the bunch, I do wish that Vanessa Kirby was given more range to work on. What struck me the most in "Pieces of a Woman" aside from its stunning opening was the camerawork featured in some scenes, but aside from that, I can't say that I was too impressed in what is considered by many to be an awards frontrunner in the coming months.

FINAL GRADE: 6/10