Butler's Cinema Scene

Shia LaBeouf, Vanessa Kirby

“PIECES OF A WOMAN” My rating: B (Netflix)

126 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Pieces of a Woman” announces itself with such an overwhelmingly dramatic and technologically challenging sequence that the rest of the film seems like an afterthought.

For nearly 30 minutes at the very beginning of Komel Mundruczo’s almost unbearable drama we are in the Montreal apartment of a young couple, Martha and Sean (Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf), as she undergoes childbirth.

The process is captured in one uninterrupted shot, from the first labor pains to the arrival of a midwife, Eva (Molly Parker), and on the the birth of the child.

It is so realistic, so perfectly acted, so audacious in its blend of naturalism and hyper-theatricality that one could end the movie right there and stagger out overwhelmed by the wonder and mystery of one human’s arrival in this world.

Thing is, there are still another 90 minutes to go, and while “Pieces of a Woman” features some impressive acting and soul-scorching angst, the rest of the film falls well short of matching the impact of that brilliant introduction.

There’s only so much one can reveal about the plot (the screenplay is by Kata Weber) without a major spoiler alert.

Let’s just say that the happy event does not long remain in that state, and that in its wake Martha and Sean’s marriage is shaken perhaps beyond repair.  Each party — he’s a construction worker, she occupies a corner office in a major firm — must deal with grief in their own way.

Ellen Burstyn

Meanwhile, in the background, another plot thread percolates. The midwife who oversaw the birth faces criminal charges. Martha and Sean are expected to aid the prosecution and testify in open court.

Things are aggravated by Martha’s mother (Ellen Burstyn), a domineering sort who, while presumably having her daughter’s best interests at heart, pushes her emotionally damaged child to wade into the legal fray. Mama believes this will be cleansing and empowering.

Martha isn’t so sure.

As a depiction of grief, Kirby’s work here is devastating, by turns quietly anguished and volcanically angry. Kirby (she played the young Princess Margaret in early episodes of Netflix’s “The Crown”) delivers both a fiercely internalized depiction of sorrow and depression and a subtly nuanced physical interpretation.  You can pretty much read Martha’s current mental/emotional status by the condition of her hair.

LaBeouf is equally good — though in the latter stages he inexplicably drops out of sight.  His Sean is a decent guy who veers into bad behavior in the wake of tragedy.

(Curiously, Netflix initially urged him to be considered for an Oscar nomination, then dropped the actor unceremoniously when LaBeouf was accused of on-the-set misbehavior. Over the course of several recent films  — “Fury,” “Honey Boy,” “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” “American Honey” — this former child actor has shown terrific range and subtlety — he now seems to be the poster boy for actors who give great performances while behaving badly.)

Despite the fine acting, much of “Pieces…” remains primarily a chronicle of the stages of grief, and it’s a tough go.

But the film is on shakiest ground when dealing with the impending trial of the midwife.  Mundruczo and Weber — both Hungarians — appear to have only a tenuous grasp of the workings of a Canadian or American criminal proceedings. Somehow they  envision the public prosecutor (“Succession’s” Sarah Snook) as a sort of private attorney representing the mourning couple.

Worse, they’ve jury-rigged an illicit affair between the prosecutor and Sean, an indiscretion which in the real world would be a fast track to disbarment.

“Pieces of a Woman,” then, is a mixed bag. Go for the good stuff; try to overlook the iffy.

| Robert W. Butler