After losing her baby, a woman is trying to put her life back in order, but the intolerable suffering keeps damaging her and the people around her.
A protracted tracking shot in the opening sequence always raises the bar and expectations. The second one comes right after, and its twenty-four-minute realism and intensity stealthily build up to the point that it will cut your breath. The preexisting knowledge that the sequence will end in the worst possible way, the attention to detail, and the meticulous preproduction planning will make you feel as ill as Martha does. Director Kornél Mundruczó mounts the camera over the shoulder, magnificently depicting the moment of tragedy. Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, and Molly Parker bring his vision to life by doing an excellent job in front of it.
The film is not just that sequence, though. Understandably, the torn couple’s journey goes down the mourning path anyone can expect, but the destination is unknown. And this is where Kata Wéber’s tight and focused script builds up next. The narrative is restricted to what everyone knows when you are watching. So, your guess is as good as everyone else’s. Numerous external forces, i.e., the mother, the sister, the lawyer, the media, and everyone in the surrounding environment, can play a significant role in what might happen next. Can you feel Martha’s pain while sensing that the midwife did her best? The ending is fulfilling for everyone but Sean, and since I don’t want to spoil it for you, I will just say that he will unfairly pay the unbearable price till the very end on his own. And that is really unfair.
Two more people are worth mentioning at this point: Martin Scorsese, who is wearing the producer’s hat on this one and Ellen Burstyn, who, despite her age, is still giving her 100% every time she stands in front of the lens. Interestingly, Burstyn won the Oscar for her performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), directed by Scorsese.
When such unfathomable pain takes over, it feels like passing it on to everyone, especially the ones we love, as absorbing it all will completely consume us. It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Whatever the intolerable pain might be, expressing it and sharing it with our loved ones and professionals will help the healing process. Oh, and there is another underlying message in the film: Be kind to everyone, everywhere! We can never know what lies underneath the surface.
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