Score: 4 / 5
The first thirty minutes of this movie are astounding. We begin with Sean (Shia LaBeouf), working as a bridge builder, as he leaves work to be with his very pregnant partner. Martha (Vanessa Kirby) is expecting her baby any minute and is determined to make this home birth work. They've planned, they've practiced, and they are ready. But their midwife is busy and sends a substitute. Martha battles waves of nausea and excruciating pain. Sean has to call for an ambulance. As the birth teeters dangerously close to disaster, the tension unbearable, I realized that the continuous single take was at least twenty minutes long. This technique forces us into the scene much like in live theatre, but it also works as a sort of cinéma vérité for later in the movie, when the events of this home birth come under scrutiny. Tragedy indeed strikes, in a gut-punch of a title card one-quarter of the way into the film.
Kirby does tough work in this movie to fill painful silence with the agony of her loss. LaBeouf does too, although to a lesser degree; his role just isn't as potent or interesting. More than once, I was reminded of John Cameron Mitchell and David Lindsay-Abaire's brilliant movie Rabbit Hole. As their relationship deteriorates under the burden of bereavement, Sean spirals out, checking the standard boxes of his condition. He relapses with cocaine, has an affair with Martha's cousin, and seems eager for revenge on the midwife, who he blames for his daughter's death. This last is what informs the actual plot of the second half of the film, as midwife Eva (Molly Parker) is put on trial. We don't see much of the trial, though, and the feeble attempt at courtroom drama lies limp in comparison with the brutal psychological tragedy of Martha.
There is a particular scene, though, that really bothered me in this movie. Not because it wasn't honest or truthful, but because it was a little too truthful. A depressed Sean initiates sex with an equally depressed Martha, who clearly doesn't want to although she doesn't explicitly say as much. When she finally seems to consent (once they're awkwardly on the bed and partially clothed), Sean immediately loses interest and leaves the house. It's an uncomfortable scene by design, effectively setting up his affair and fall from whatever grace he might have had, but because it's LaBeouf, it's hard not to remember the sexual assault lawsuit brought against him in real life. I'm all for separating artists from their work, but this was especially hard to swallow. It was actually nice seeing him do real acting again -- he's quite skilled -- but this scene took me out of the movie in the worst way.
Neither Sean nor Eva add much to this movie, and I wish their parts were more fleshy. They're important, I suppose, but they aren't interesting at all and mostly distracted me from the real juicy stuff between Martha and her family. Actually, then again, as I attempt to recall details, only scenes with Martha and her mother come to mind. The siblings aren't really important either. Thankfully, Ellen Burstyn (who is currently 88 and still blowing me away) graces the movie as Elizabeth, the strong-willed mother who blames Martha for insisting on a home birth, Sean (whom she says she's never liked) for his toxicity and being below her standards, and Eva, whose trial she forces Martha to attend. Indeed, between Burstyn and Kirby there is more chemistry than anywhere else in this movie, leading to a dramatic climax where the two women erupt into conflict, each launching their aggrieved laundry lists while coming to the realization they simply don't know how best to move on.
So, where does that leave us? Come for The Scene (I think it was about 25 minutes and had me laughing, gasping, and weeping). Stay for Kirby and Burstyn. Some heavy-handed themes -- the bridge-building is a little too pointed -- and the abundance of apple imagery aside, this is an artful, sensitive, thoughtful, and haunting look at motherhoods we don't often see on film.
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