Delayed Reaction: Pieces of a Woman

Premise: A woman tries to cope after a personal tragedy.

 

I'm intrigued by movies that put their showstopper at the beginning. I can't quite call them climaxes, but I am referring to the biggest, most memorable sequences in the movies. This includes the plane crash in Flight and the tsunami in The Impossible. Big, impressive sequences that the rest of the movie is cleaning up from. Or even something like Room that puts the escape in the middle. That leaves a lot of movie to fill, and it's like playing your Wild on the first turn rather than saving it for when you have an Uno.

 

Pieces of a Woman is one of these movies I've described. Most of the opening is an extended single-shot sequence that ends with the title card of the movie a whopping 30 minutes into the movie. And those first 30 minutes are a doozy. It's a long sequence of Vanessa Kirby having a home birth. It's a great bit of acting from her, Shia LeBeouf, and eventually Molly Parker*. I can't praise the beginning of the movie enough. As high points go, that is really high.

 

*Am I the only one who thought that was Annette Bening for way too long?

 

The next 90ish minutes are all about the fallout from that night, and it really struggles to remain as interesting. I'll assume you are smart and can guess what happens in this. She loses the baby. And the rest of the movie is about how Vanessa Kirby, and to a lesser extent Shia LeBeouf, get past it over the next 6 months or so. A lot of it felt pretty boiler-plate. Shia falls off the wagon, drinking, doing drugs, and cheating with Kirby's cousin. Kirby becomes closed off and hostile to anyone trying to help. Kirby remains great and deserving of the Oscar nomination that is surely coming to her, but the movie meanders through the beats I'd expect. Perhaps I'm seeing this in too close a proximity to Promising Young Woman, which turns trauma into a revenge fantasy, so Pieces of a Woman looks mundane by comparison.

There are elements I liked later on. I like how unwavering Kirby's mother (Ellen Burstyn) is about not liking LeBeouf: eventually outright bribing him to leave. Aspects of the Molly Parker trial were nice. They leave breadcrumbs about what was happening to her for a while before outright saying it. It really suggests a whole other movie happening in the background with Parker as the lead.

 

The cast overall is great for such a small movie. This is the dramatic breakout Vanessa Kirby has been looking for since being a standout supporting character in a number of movies and shows*. Shia has been pushed aside from the promotions for the movie due to unsurprising personal matters, but he's solid. Burstyn is a marvel if for no other reason than she's still so vibrant at 88. It's nice seeing Iliza Shlesinger sneaking into more movies lately. From the number of times that I confused her and Kirby on screen from behind or at a distance, I'll go ahead and call her excellent casting as Kirby's sister. Molly Parker is excellent in mostly reactive, wordless scenes by the end. Even Sarah Snook shows up, although in a role that doesn't give her a lot to do.

 

*While her American accent is good, I must admit to playing a game of "spot the Brit" during the labor scenes. It's hard to hide an accent when letting out primal screams.

 

I wish Pieces of a Woman could've maintained the momentum from the strong start. Given that the start is a fourth of the movie though, there's more than enough of it to justify watching. I wish there was a little more to it by the end. With the Massachusetts setting and grief, this reminds me of Manchester by the Sea in a lot of ways. Even though both are really character studies, Manchester felt like a more complete movie. Part of that is because Shia has a dead end of a character who goes away by the end in Pieces of a Woman, so that movie actually loses its second biggest character by the end. Manchester has Lucas Hedges throughout and has that powerhouse Michelle Williams scene toward the end. So, Manchester ends up feeling like it belongs to more characters by the end. Anyway, Pieces of a Woman is a good time if you’re in the mood for some self-inflicted emotional abuse. I just wish I liked it anywhere near as much by the end as I did after 30 minutes.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend