Losing a child is one of the most gut-wrenching experiences that can ever befall a person. Major depression, suicide, health problems, and marital disruption all become risk factors for parents experiencing loss, particularly during the first year immediately following the loss. Expectant parents who have experiences this have described the loneliness of not having the child you expected to bring home and having to navigate people attempting to offer sympathy even if they cannot empathize. The ordeal hits people of all walks of life the same and as we have seen this year, it can be even more complicated for those in the spotlight. Director Kornél Mundruczó’s latest film takes into one woman’s struggle to get through the loss of her child.
Pieces of a Woman follows the home birth of Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf), a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood. Due to the simultaneous birth of another client’s child, the midwife whom Martha and Sean chose cannot make it and instead sends colleague Eve Woodward (Molly Parker in her place. All three of their lives change irrevocably when the home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Martha and Sean must navigate their grief during that tumultuous first year while working through a fractious relationships with Martha’s domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn) and the now publicly vilified Eve, whom she must face in court.
Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber have managed to craft an all-encompassing portrait of grief in the face of indescribable personal loss and its effect on human interaction, particularly as it pertains to family dynamics. The manner in which the director presents the juxtaposition of how people handle grief through both Martha and Sean ensures that the full human spectrum on how we handle the grieving process is depicted in the film. In Martha, we see a person rushing to erase any reminder of what they lost from their lives and from view. Sean on the other hand wishes to confront their pain head on in order to move past it and at times running head on into intimacy as a way to feel something other than hurt. The conflicting way in which they deal with it only serves to deepen the tensions that exist within the family. Grief can bring back old demons and conjure up new ones. How tragic circumstances can exacerbate already existing tensions and underlying conflicts among loved ones. Here, it may be a tragic death of a newborn, but I’m sure many of you reading will be reminded of how the death of a matriarch or a relapsing family member, caused your loved ones to take their pain and grief out on one another. The deterioration of Martha and Sean’s marriage is sadly realistic, even if it isn’t widespread. One study has shown that 12 percent of marriages end following the death of a child.The strain of trying to navigate a partner’s feelings and reaction to such a tragic event while not knowing how to manage your own can be insurmountable, particularly if their reaction is an especially destructive one.
But through grief, we are often able to find pieces of ourselves we didn’t know existed and strength where we didn’t realize it resided. This describes Martha’s overall character arc which director Kornél Mundruczó communicates visually through the utilization of the recurring image of apple seeds. The seeds are symbolic of the growth we witness Martha undergo as she comes to terms with her loss and eventually moves on from her grief and toward happiness again. Through tragedy, Martha is able to find her strength once she finally makes it to the courtroom for Eve’s trial. In facing the ordeal head on, Martha finds her voice and finally says what she feels as her mother admonishes her to do in an earlier confrontation in the film; a catharsis that not only brings the trial to a head, but all of her feelings.
One other thing that struck me in watching is the overall fragility of life, particularly as it pertains to childbirth and infant and child mortality. As recently as 1935, infant morality in the US was 55.7 per 1,000 births. It hit a low of 6.9 per 1,000 in 2000, although those numbers have began to increase somewhat. Many of our grandparents or older relatives remember the days where two to three children among many in one family died before the age of puberty and it was not an uncommon occurrence. Seeing the toll losing a child can take and knowing that not that long ago, it was something that happened multiple times for countless families makes one marvel at medical science and feel for generations past.
The lead role in this film is tremendously performed by Vanessa Kirby in a role that places her firmly on the radar of viewers as she continues her ascension as an actress. Kirby’s portrayal of the inner turmoil Martha suffers through hits every note perfectly, going from a dazed woman wandering through life, to explosions of rage, to coping through partying. Shia LaBeouf performs well as Sean who starts off trying to confront his grief and Martha’s head on before succumbing to demons of his past when he’s unable to adequately address his wife’s pain or his own. He’s at once tender but also able to believable portray the steady downward spiral of a lost fight against grief. Ellen Burstyn is her usual brilliant self, providing the film with it’s most powerful scene as she confronts Martha about her hopes for her daughter and her need to confront all she’s dealing with.
Pieces of a Woman is a powerful, intimate examination of a phenomenon that is acknowledged but barely spoken about above hushed tones. The film’s opening scene depicting the birth is as tense and nerve-wrecking as any horror film you’ve ever seen; you think you’re in the clear then director Kornél Mundruczó just rips your heart out. The film’s cinematography is also a jewel as Benjamin Loeb’s sweeping camerawork featuring tracking shots that following the characters visually just as intimately as the film’s story does, especially during the birthing scene as its used to convey the ensuing panic and chaoticness of a home birth gone awry.
Image: Netflix
