![]() The complications could be their undoing. For Sean and Martha, we sense that they needed this child. In others, parenthood and the responsibilities it confers become the cement that holds a couple together. In some marriages, pregnancy can drive a wedge between the parties, upsetting whatever magnetism attracted them in the first place. Will this bring the couple closer together? Not likely. It’s her idea to sue the midwife, although it’s unclear what the family hopes to gain by doing so. Elizabeth has never approved of Sean, but senses a way to manipulate the situation through him. She carries the damage wrought by a domineering mother, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), who remains an invasive presence in her life. Meanwhile, Martha has weaknesses as well. This latest setback could send him to the brink again. “I’ve come back from death before,” he says. Sean and Martha seem so close during the delivery - a couple from separate classes, where the gap between their white- and blue-collar identities is bridged by an intuitive intimacy that renders them stronger together - but as they both try to make sense of this tragedy, their inner demons reemerge, and they seem less like a couple and more like two separate, susceptible people. It’s hard to proceed without giving away too much. ![]() Audiences must discover for themselves what happens, but suffice to say, the results aren’t typical, and it will take the rest of the film to process the shock. There’s blood in the bath, and the baby’s heartrate isn’t where it should be. But how many have been able to give birth before our eyes? It’s a wondrous thing to watch, although the tone takes a turn toward the end of the scene, and suddenly this precious rite shared by so many women assumes a sharp pang of suspense. Think of all the great actors who’ve gotten the chance to die on camera over the years. Can he sustain this all the way through childbirth? In short, yes, Mundruczó intends to capture the miracle of delivery in all its joy and agony - stripped of glamour, yet completely spontaneous and unpredictable despite the careful planning this scene must have required. Your average viewer may not notice that Mundruczó doesn’t cut, choreographing DP Benjamin Loeb’s camera so it’s right in the middle of the process, but they will certainly feel the mounting tension. The woman sends a replacement, Eva, who’s warm and encouraging (qualities Parker so effortlessly embodies), guiding them through the process. Sean calls the doula, only to learn that she’s busy with another delivery. The shot starts casually enough, with Martha’s contractions arriving six minutes apart, but quickly escalates as her water breaks. Decades from now, whether they love or hate the movie (it’s the kind that divides), audiences will still be talking about the virtuoso 23-minute “oner” - an elaborate, unbroken plan sequence that stretches the duration of a scene, à la “Children of Men” - in which Martha gives birth. " 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.Early on, it feels as if the same could happen to “Pieces of a Woman,” Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber’s first English-language project: A few minutes in, after establishing salt-of-the-earth construction worker Sean (LaBeouf) and his relatively refined wife Martha (Kirby), Mundruczó launches into one of those stunts that will go down in film history. The official synopsis for the Netflix film reads: "Martha and Sean are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. ![]() In the film midwife Eva faces criminal charges over the death of the baby "One sentence she told us is in the movie: 'the newborn has to decide when she wants to be born.'" "We met this midwife a couple of times, and she was very inspiring," Mundruczó revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. The midwife was given a two-year prison sentence but was later pardoned. ![]() The filmmaking team also drew inspiration from a real-life case of a midwife who was charged with manslaughter in their home country of Hungary after a baby died during a home birth. ![]()
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