Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are excited to welcome their first child. Well, excited/terrified in proportions that vary wildly from moment to moment, and depending on what kind of shade Martha’s judgy and manipulative mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn) is throwing. Usually it’s quite a lot, but what can they say when she’s co-signing the loan on their new minivan?
Martha is opting for a home birth but of course when she goes into labour, some other thoughtless pregnant lady is monopolizing her midwife and she has to settle for her back-up, Eva (Molly Parker). It’s not exactly the birth plan Martha had naively hoped for, but none of it matters once those contractions get serious. Her labour is long and difficult, and we get a front row seat. It is raw and captivating, told in a good 30 minute chunk of some of the most intimate film making I’ve ever seen.
Director Kornél Mundruczó shows the birth of a beautiful baby girl in excruciating, glorious detail. Her death is much more swift. It is easy enough to show a baby’s arrival, and I suppose also her loss, but it is another thing entirely to show a mother learning to live without her.
Vanessa Kirby is astonishing in this – numb with grief, achingly lonely, and finally, explosive with anger. The film’s second half can’t quite compete with its dizzying first (very little can), but even if it occasionally slips, Kirby does not, she soldiers on, the portrait of a woman fractured by her loss, still wearing badges of motherhood without the defining, essential thing. Her life, her home, her relationship have all become haunted by the ghost of such brief life. Martha stumbles along the path toward some kind of acceptance, but Kirby’s Oscar track is sure-footed and just.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Whoa…this review certainly captured my attention, especially the part about Vanessa Kirby’s performance. Will keep my eyes open for this one😊
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Wow…a beautifully written post, Jay. Really great. Sounds heartbreaking. I don’t know why, but I always root for Shia LaBeouf.
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Wow, got chills… can’t wait!!
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Wow. This sounds like truly can’t-miss material. I know this is entirely a Vanessa Kirby movie, but good for Shia LaBeouf for attaching himself to a movie like this as well.
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Great review, Jay. Sounds like a must-see movie. Hope that I can handle watching a mother’s grief.
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Holy Cow This sounds intense. I can’t think of an experience more excruciating… I don’t want to watch it. But I might have to, for the acting alone.
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I heard amazing things about this film as well as for Vanessa Kirby who won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in this film.
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Sounds very sad.
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Vanessa Kirby is one of those actors who’s probably been working steadily for years, but it’s only been in the last few years that she’s flashed across my radar. I’ll keep this one in mind. : )
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