Great acting born of despair
THE BIG RELEASE PIECES OF A WOMAN
15 ★★★★✩
THE glitzy red-carpet ceremonies may have shifted later this year thanks to Covid-19, with the Academy Awards and Baftas (usually around February) both postponed until April, yet the serious contenders are still piling down the traditional January corridor.
Hot on the heels of fellow Netflix favourites Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Mank comes this pulverising drama whose graphic 30-minute birth scene may take me 12 months to recover from.
Shot as if in a single, unflinching take, the scene comes near the start of the movie. In Boston, heavily pregnant Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and her roughand-ready boyfriend Shaun (Shia LaBeouf) are set on a home birth. When the contractions are nearly five minutes apart Shaun calls the midwife but she’s busy so sends a slightly nervy replacement (Molly Parker).
As the labour gets going, you can’t look away, however much you might want to, particularly given that the sequence ends in heart-wrenching tragedy. Following their baby’s sudden death, the couple attempt to piece their lives back together.
The film peaks early with that transfixing opener. Birth has rarely, if ever, been represented with such daring dedication and intimate accuracy. The performances, however, remain tremendous.
Best known as Princess Margaret in the first two series of The Crown and for levelling off against Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Kirby is a revelation. It’s a meaty role that’s already won her Best Actress at Venice Film Festival but there’s no sense of an actress grandstanding here – Kirby disappears into Martha while retaining her own unique star quality. She and the rest of the cast wring truth and nuance from a script that doesn’t match their finesse. A bridge metaphor is tiresomely overplayed and the ending feels abrupt, the coda too pat.
Still, it’s full credit to Netflix for backing such a seriously hard-to-watch movie that’s sure to get the home birthing lobby up in arms. It’s one to watch for Kirby’s golden performance alone – but deep breathing is definitely required.
Available on Netflix from tomorrow