Pieces Of A Woman Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

6. It's A Devastating Portrait Of Grief

Dramas about bereavement are nothing new, though ones concerned specifically with neonatal death are relatively rare, presumably due to their piercing emotional gravity and how un-commercial they unavoidably are.

To that end Mundruczó's film pulls no punches whatsoever where the intimate turmoil of Martha's situation is concerned: it is an incredibly raw and even confrontational film about the realities of day-to-day living following a stillbirth.

Martha sees children everywhere in her daily life, serving as a constant reminder of what she was deprived of, which combined with the rigours of the impending trial, her ailing relationship with Sean, and an overbearing mother obsessed with getting "justice," ensures Martha struggles to move past what happened.

Given how miscarriages and stillbirths are still very much a taboo, whispered-about subject in daily life, if the film sparks frank discussions about this specifically painful type of loss, then that might be its true triumph.