Great things and missed things.

I thought the acting was outstanding. Vanessa Kirby can convey so much without words. Shia was solid, Burstyn had some great moments. It was cool seeing Iliza- she looks so much like she could be Kirby's sister!

I loved the camera work. The way it followed people but then focused away from them - so many shots of Martha's arm, or back... it created uneasiness, like the characters not being able to connect wuth each other. Like we could not look anyone in the face.

I loved Martha looking at the photo of her with her baby - how she could remember the feeling of love even if it only lasted for a moment. I loved that she decided that was something she could always hold on to and that she didn't need to punish anybody.


Some misses:
The ending - i lived how they portrayed the scene of Martha looking at the photo of her and her baby and seeing the love she had for a few minutes at least. She realized that she could his in to that and didn't need anyone to punish. BUT, her speech to the court was totally unrealistic. It just wouldn't happen. My wife usually gets annoyed if I say anything during a movie but even she blurted out, "This would never happen" during that.
I thought that the smile on her mother's face while Martha was giving that speech was unrealistic for her character. She was out for vengeance, I don't think she'd have been happy with that. I also think that Martha would have been a lot angrier when her mother basically blamed her for the baby's death.

The setting - i don't remember if there were other cues to the location, but I was jarred when the court came to order "in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts". It could only have been Boston but it was so decidedly NOT Boston. If they were going to set the movie somewhere, at least include real shots if that place.

The bridge. It was kind of interesting to show the bridge construction progressing throughout the movie. But it was a step too cute at the end. It turned into a cliché- as soon as they showed the bridge in the last scene i blurted out, "the bridge is connected, she is healed!" I guess it was a good metaphor but it didn't hit me the right way.

Little misses, too - it's hard enough to believe that they used a film camera (it wasn't apparent that this was set in some past decade) but very unusual that they would have found a shop that hand developed film and prints. And I could understand them not wanting to make prints of their tragedy but they dropped the film off to be developed right away? They wanted the dramatic touch of the photo coming into view, but it didn't add up. Minute point to the story but it was distracting.

Others have noted that Burstyn was too old to play the mother of woman that age. But I'm not going to begrudge Ellen Burstyn getting any movie role.

Maybe many of these things make more sense if we assume the movie was set 25 years ago... if it was and I missed that, I'm sorry.