“The first half-hour of “Pieces of a Woman” is a brutal viewing experience, portraying a home birth gone wrong in grueling detail.
“How the audience processes that will likely determine how they feel about the rest of the film, which is otherwise most notable for its powerful central performance by “The Crown’s” Vanessa Kirby.
“The premise is loosely inspired by a personal tragedy that befell Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo and writer Kata Weber, a real-life couple that lost a baby.
“But their first English-language film takes off in dramatic directions thereafter, including the toll the situation exacts on Kirby’s Martha and her husband Sean (Shia LaBeouf), as well as others within their extended orbit.”
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