Pieces of a Woman
Vanessa Kirby should be nominated for her turn as the beleaguered Martha in Pieces of a Woman. Martha suffers in the first thirty minutes through childbirth to an unhappy conclusion, just one of the several setbacks that support her pervasive unhappiness.
Pieces is the kind of intense study of a woman that placed John Cassavetes in the firmament of minimalist directors with a naturalistic flare but a talent for delivering strong cinematic narratives about women. Director Kornel Mundruczo shows
Martha also facing a troubled marriage to a working-class, former druggie, Sean (Shia Le Boeuf), who doesn’t quite fit the upscale family headed by her mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn).