Pieces of a Woman (2020)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: A harrowing portrait of a stillbirth and its testing aftermath, Kornel Mundruczo and Kata Weber's 'Pieces of a Woman,' is one difficult watch. It begins with a brilliantly edge-of-your-seat, single-take homebirth scene, and then shows the initially loving couple each deal with the resulting loss in different ways. Martha (Vanessa Kirby) is trying to move whilst and Sean (Shia LeBouf) returns to drink, and the two gradually drift apart as family members desperately try to control the situation. It's all shown through a few simple and bleak scenes and interactions which often say an awful lot without much dialogue, and that works on the one hand because the performances are so strong, but also because Mundruczo shows real command over the visual medium with his camera lingering for just the right amount of time on characters' faces and their surrounding environment. The passing of time is even shown by the building of a bridge, and the sad emptiness of the situation is reflected by the bleak sorrow of the streets of their industrial city and the noticeable minimalism of the sound design and the absence of score.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It is one bleak watch...
  
  VERDICT: A harrowing and sympathetic portrait of a stillbirth and its affects, 'Pieces of a Woman,' is a tough watch, but it's a very effective one indeed.

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