Denial

 

THE TREATMENT (2006) (B) - This movie was probably designed to finally turn Chris Eigeman into a Hollywood leading man. Alas. He's been our guy, whether it was on TV in "Gilmore Girls" (the snarky love interest Jason) or in the early films of Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan," "Barcelona") and Noah Baumbach ("Kicking and Screaming"). But he's too much of a minor key moper, more of a Warren Oates than a Warren Beatty.

Eigeman, as usual, brings warmth, nuance and dry, scuffed humor to the role of Jake Singer, a meandering prep school teacher who is still stuck on his ex, even when he finds out she is about to be married. Jake, a therapy junkie, gets knocked out of his funk when he meets Allegra (Famke Janssen), a recently widowed mother of two, including an infant whose adoption has not fully gone through. These two damaged people engage in a delicate dance; it's clearly an opportunity for Eigeman to get serious and grow up, but Allegra seems a little too eager to find a suitable replacement for her husband. Jake and Allegra have little chemistry, but that seems to be the point.

Jake also finds himself reconciling with his ailing father (a perfectly pitched Harris Yulin) while jousting in sessions with Dr. Morales (Ian Holm), who may be only partially real, considering he pops up in Jake's delusions at inopportune times. Eigeman's gravitas grounds a well conceived story by Daniel Menaker, in the capable hands of director Oren Rudavsky, who has otherwise worked in the realm of documentaries. Janssen is a bit flat and the story moves slowly, but Jake's story is worth telling and watching.

PIECES OF A WOMAN (B-minus) - Vanessa Kirby does the heavy lifting here of a woman devastated by the death of her baby girl during a midwife delivery, but the role is mostly a thankless one, unsupported by any sort of compelling narrative. This one just adds more fodder to our arguments for a soft ban on films in which a couple loses a child, the idea being that there be no more odysseys down that rabbit hole.

Director Kornel Mundruczo and writer Kata Weber (the team behind "White God") certainly are audacious. Nearly the entire first half hour of this two-hour slog is devoted to the at-home birth by Kirby's Martha, attended by a last-minute fill-in midwife (Molly Parker) and which ends tragically. The rest of the movie attempts to crack through to Martha's icy emotional core, while devoting an equal amount of time to her dull blue-collar husband, Sean (an annoying take by Shia LeBeouf), who struggles with addiction issues.

This is awfully grim stuff. Meantime, Martha's mother (Ellen Burstyn), insists on pressing the case against the midwife (it's not always clear whether the midwife is being prosecuted criminally, civilly, or both), despite the toll that takes on Martha. The intended tension, however, never really gains traction.  A pivotal monologue by Burstyn around the three-quarters mark -- a come-to-Jesus moment with her daughter -- both powerfully energizes the film while also revealing the limitations of the rest of the proceedings. The old-school actress serves up a stark reminder to the younger generation that moping around just doesn't cut it if you want a story to pop.