‘Pieces Of A Woman’, the Netflix Original Film directed by Kornél Mundruczó, is a beautiful story of coping with grief that may keep you hooked once you feel what the characters in the film feel. Especially the lead character played by Vanessa Kirby. The movie told the story of grief in a number of ways and here we are taking a look at the same as we try to analyze the ending of Pieces Of A Woman.
So basically, Pieces Of A Woman sees a couple going through traumatic childbirth that sees them losing their child. The movie follows how the mother of the child Martha copes with the situation in her own way. Despite the fact that her friends & family don’t accept her way over the situation. So before we get into explaining the hidden meaning of the film towards its ending, let’s break down all the events that took place throughout the film.
Pieces Of A Woman Plot Summary
Pieces Of A Woman follows Martha who is married to Sean and is living in Boston, Massachusetts. Martha was pregnant and the couple had opted for the baby’s delivery at home. The time Martha went into labor, they called their midwife Barbara who was not going to make it in time. Therefore she sent her replacement Eva instead. Martha wasn’t sure at first but Eva assured the couple that the process will go smoothly.
By the time Martha reached ten centimeters, Eva felt the baby’s heartbeat dropping low. This saw her asking Sean to call an ambulance just in case. The delivery was successful as Martha gave birth to a healthy girl. Soon, Eva noticed the baby turning blue. Unfortunately, the baby doesn’t survive as it goes into cardiac arrest and dies. This sees the family putting Eva on trial and blaming her for the baby’s death.
Amidst all of this, Martha’s relationship continues to fade with her husband as well as her mother Elizabeth, and other family members. Each one of them tries to deal with the situation in their own way and they don’t accept Martha’s silence over the same.
Towards the ending of Pieces Of A Woman, during the trial of Eva, Martha decides to forgive Eva as she tried her best and states that Eva wasn’t at the fault for the death of her baby. Martha later drowns the ashes of her baby near the bridge Sean was working on. Sean leaves for Seattle as he and Martha fail to rekindle their relationship.
The movie comes to a close with a little girl climbing up an apple tree to eat one of them. Soon Martha follows in calling the girl by her name Lucy. They both leave for dinner as Martha talks to her about her favorite dinner as the credits roll in.
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Pieces Of A Woman Ending Explained: The Journey Of Grief
As it was explained on Analyzing Market, Pieces Of A Woman chronicles Martha’s journey through grief along with her husband Sean as well as the other family members involved. Each one of them opts for a different approach to processing the situation.
The movie explores Sean’s way of reflecting the anger while Martha’s mother’s approach is to process it by punishing the ones responsible. They also try to inflict their decisions onto Martha hoping she would react but Martha sees it a different way.
Martha comes to the conclusion of accepting the fact that her baby couldn’t survive. It was not Eva’s fault or anyone else’s. She believes no trial or compensation is going to bring her baby back. She doesn’t want it either as it would mean she is being compensated. Martha’s journey to the point of acceptance is explained through the apples that appear in the movie and play an important part to tell the story.
The Significance Of Apple
So, you may remember one of the scenes in the movie where Martha stated that her newborn baby smelled like Apple. After she lost her baby, there are a number of times apples appeared in the film that gives us an insight into Martha’s progress of coming in circle with the situation.
For example, earlier in the film, in a scene at a store, she was confused and tried to pick up the best apple out of the many. This may tell us she is confused about how to react to the situation she is currently in. Then there was one scene that saw her with a rotten apple. This may signify her failing relationship with her husband and the family.
The most important one among them is probably the time she spits out one of the Apple seeds. Talking about seeds, they do signify rebirth or giving life another chance. After she ate the whole apple, there was nothing there except for the seed which is a key to growing another apple.
The idea to grow an apple tree may have told Martha to accept that she lost her child but she still has another chance at life. This sees her storing the seeds hoping they will sprout. Once she accepts the situation at the court, they do begin to sprout signifying that Martha has moved on from life and giving it another chance. The seeds may also reflect on the title of the film that may tell us about Lucy.
Who Is Lucy, The Girl At The End Of Life?
So, keeping the idea of giving life a second chance, Martha may have decided to drown her baby’s ashes in the waters. Instead of giving the body to science. The ending scene of Pieces Of A Woman takes place years later when she probably has grown a big apple tree that sees a little girl named Lucy climbing it to grab one of the apples.
The movie doesn’t tell the audience much about Lucy, who could be Martha’s daughter. Especially because that was not the point of the film. The point was Martha’s journey through the grief and how she finally came to accept the death of her child.
We can assume that Martha gave life another chance by giving birth to Lucy with Sean. Thus giving her relationship another chance as well. If not that, cause we saw Sean taking the money to leave for Seattle. Then she probably married someone else or is a single mother who adopted a little girl. There are plenty of options but the point was giving life another chance. So, that is all for the ending of Pieces Of A Woman.
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