Pieces of a Woman (2020)

When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Director:

Kornél Mundruczó

Writer:

Kata Wéber

Stars:

Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn

2 wins & 28 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vanessa Kirby	...	Martha
Shia LaBeouf	...	Sean
Ellen Burstyn	...	Elizabeth
Iliza Shlesinger	...	Anita
Benny Safdie	...	Chris
Sarah Snook	...	Suzanne
Molly Parker	...	Eva
Steven McCarthy	...	Photographer
Tyrone Benskin	...	Judge
Frank Schorpion	...	Lane
Harry Standjofski	...	Court Clerk
Domenic Di Rosa	...	Medical Examiner
Jimmie Fails	...	Max
Juliette Casagrande	...	Little Girl
Gayle Garfinkle	...	Judith

Storyline

Martha and Sean are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with her husband and her domineering mother, along with the publicly vilified midwife, whom she must face in court. A deeply personal, searing, and ultimately transcendent story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

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Plot Keywords:

female frontal nudity | female nudity | male frontal nudity | male nudity | male rear nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexual content, graphic nudity and brief drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

As Vanessa Kirby has never given birth in real life, she watched numerous documentaries and videos and shadowed midwives in a hospital in North London and even was allowed to be in a room with a woman who was giving birth.

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Goofs

Martha has her nails clean at the court house, but just after that, at home, her nails are painted black again.

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Quotes

Elizabeth: And I'm ashamed of me. That I wasn't a good enough mother to teach you how to stand up and speak for yourself, for God's sakes. And to deal with this. Like my mother taught me. After my father went into the ghetto, my mother found a shack, an empty shack, that she went into and gave birth to me. Without any help at all. She stashed me under the floorboards when she had to go out and steal food. So she could make milk enough to keep me alive, but just alive. Not strong enough to cry, or we'd be ...

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Connections

Featured in Chris Stuckmann Quick Movie Reviews: TIFF 2020: Pieces of a Woman, One Night in Miami, Nomadland (2020)

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Soundtracks

Untitled #3
Written by Orri P. Dyrason (as Orri Pall Dyrason), Kjartan Sveinsson, Jon Thor Birgisson, Georg Holm
Performed by Sigur Rós
Courtesy of Krunk Records/ADA UK
By arrangement with ADA Licensing, a division of Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Heart-jerker like a Bergman film

I've seen several comparisons of Mundruczó's style to that of Cassavettes, but when the credits arrived, Bergman came to my mind: largely discoursive, disfunctional family relationships, and naturalistic dialogue despite the presence of a structured screenplay.

The english language debut of the hungarian director is built around eight different days, each distant about a month from the other, as it depicts the way the life of the titular woman changes after a tragic miscarriage. Most of the scenes use very well made one-shot sequences (particularly successful is one that happens very early in the movie, perhaps one of the best single takes I've seen in years, but it dangerously overshadowed the rest of the film

As I see it, a film is well writtwn when all its structural elements check out, and this is the case here: every piece of dialogue is deeply connected to the main story yet the overall effect of naturalism is unaffected.

Pieces of a Woman is a character-driven story, and thus the performances of the titular actors much be noted: not only the subtly emotional Vanessa Kirby but Ellen Burstyn's role as the protagonist'a mother, as well as Shia Labeouf's painful take on the partner's role.

Scorsese was totally right: this movie is surprising, yet in an unexpected, subtle way. Lookong forward for more Mundruczó.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Canada Hungary USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 January 2021 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pieces of a Woman

Filming Locations:

Montreal, Québec, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

BRON Studios, Creative Wealth Media Finance, Little Lamb

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1