Pieces of a Woman is a tough watch. You see these lives spiraling out of control and you’re powerless to do anything about them. Paired with robust performances from the cast and you’ve got an effective drama… with a couple of weird choices in the screenplay.

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are expecting a baby. The delivery goes bad. Sean is outraged. Martha seems indifferent. Their relationship begins falling apart.

Pieces of a Woman is light on plot and instead chooses to focus on the characters. More specifically, it’s about how this tragedy changes them, how it erodes what they had and makes them into different people. Martha is frustrating. It’s like she’s deliberating choosing to hurt her partner and her mother (Molly Parker as Elizabeth) by remaining cold. You’re torn. You sympathize with her. The intense opening, all shot in one take means you were there when things went bad. You know what she’s dealing with but seeing her choices puts you on Sean's side. He’s doing his best but he can’t do this alone and right now, he’s even worse off than Martha. At least she has a partner, a sister, and a mom that are eager to look after her. Him? The family’s never liked him. It’s only because they feel bad that the mood has changed.

When people think of great performances, they think roles that show off a full gamut of emotions. You see them laugh, cry, maybe play younger and older, with an accent you know they don’t usually speak with, etc. The great performances in this movie are not of that kind. These actors maintain a negative, distraught energy consistently, which is a lot harder to do than you think, particularly when we're talking about overwhelming grief and powerlessness. You look at Martha and on the surface, there isn’t much to see but beneath, there’s so much it’s like everything’s canceled each other out so nothing can be expressed.

The movie is not fun but it is rewarding to see something you would otherwise never be allowed to. No one would let you this close to a heartbreak this deep. And then, there are a couple of strange choices. Making Elizabeth a survivor of the Holocaust isn’t a bad idea but it feels like it’s there so Molly Parker can have a big moment where she tells her story. Was it really necessary? Same for a detail about the family Lawyer/Martha’s cousin, Suzanne (Sarah Snook). It’s just a little more complicated than it needed to be, which is distracting.

There are some great moments in Pieces of a Woman. The opening, for example, is intense and raw. The ending is also quite good, though a little by-the-book. It might take someone with a strong stomach to “enjoy” the film and I doubt anyone outside of those who study performances would pop it into their DVD player willy-nilly but for the one time, it’s moving and effective. (April 29, 2021)