An Emotional Ride
This is a tough, not easy to warm to but ultimately memorable film that will reward you if you can get by the first 30 minutes, in which a tragic childbirth sequence is played out in vivid and unapologetic style as Martha (Kirby) goes into labor in the apartment shared with father-to-be Sean (Shia LaBeouf), a home delivery aided by Eva (Molly Parker) who is a replacement midwife Sean calls in a panic to help bring the baby into the world. What seems to be normal though soon turns highly dramatic when things go unbearably wrong and the newborn cannot be saved, medical help arriving too late. At this point the opening title credit appears, yes 30 minutes into the film, a device Mundruczó uses clearly to signal the turn in the story away from this risky but fascinating opening where the audience is barely given a chance to breathe.
This is the most conventional section of the film, but Kirby navigates all the twists of this first English-language picture for the Hungarian director, one written by his wife Kata Weber and inspired by a real-life baby loss for the pair. That, however, is where the connection between later events in Weber’s script and to their own lives ends. I was with it all the way, but I have to put a warning out there that this will not be easy viewing for some (I could also say that as well for another of the director’s films, the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard winner White God, which I found to be absolutely extraordinary). Working in a language not native to him, Mundruczó succeeds well steering his impressive cast in the Boston-set film to nuanced performances for the most part.
Kirby is just remarkable, a role for which she will long be remembered and a portrayal she goes all in on. LaBeouf’s character doesn’t have the same arc but he’s good in it, particularly in that harrowing first act. However, aside from Kirby, it is Burstyn who really makes your heart beat a little faster with a steely but determined manner and a killer monologue
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