Toni Collette is Brilliant in the Otherwise Dire ‘Pieces of Her’

Netflix‘s new thriller Pieces of Her is worth watching for one reason and one reason alone and that is Toni Collette. The Australian actress throws down yet another tour de force in the series as Laura Oliver, a seemingly sweet and respectable single mom who has been long hiding a dark past. Overall, Pieces of Her is a frustrating misfire: a thriller that teases narrative ingenuity, but ultimately winds up chasing its own tail. But I can’t — and I won’t — complain about how Pieces of Her lets Toni Collette be a shifty, ruthless, complex badass.

Based on Karin Slaughter’s best-selling novel of the same name, Pieces of Her opens in a small, coastal town in Georgia where the biggest problem seems to be raccoons breaking into trash cans. 30-year-old artist-turned-911 operator Andy (Bella Heathcote) is clearly stuck here, living in a small cottage in her mom Laura’s backyard. It’s all very calm and serene until an unhinged man opens fire in a crab shack Andy and Laura are dining in. While Laura manages to keep her cool in the face of peril, Andy freezes. Worse, the shooter assumes Andy is an actual cop (thanks to her uniform) and wants to bait her into killing him. Laura tries to face and disarm the shooter, which only results in him running out of ammo and stabbing her in the hand. Laura goes into a sort of trance and slits the assailant’s throat with a swift move.

Naturally, Laura’s heroics have been recorded and she goes “viral.” That means that soon goons show up at Laura and Andy’s home. Andy saves her mother by killing their new attacker with a blow to the head and soon Laura is telling Andy she’s got to hit the road, find a storage unit, and flee to Maine. It’s obvious that Laura isn’t the sweet small town lady she’s been playacting for Andy’s whole life.

From there, Pieces of Her devolves into a head-scratching mess, but one element remains constant: Toni Collette’s excellence. While other actors in the show clearly struggle to bring dimension to their thinly written characters, Collette finds ways to imbue Laura with depth, nuance, and soul. At times, it’s hard to figure out if Laura is trustworthy. She’s clearly dangerous and duplicitous. But you always see how badly Laura loves her daughter. In fact, by the time Pieces of Her‘s Season 1 end credits roll, the only thing you can be totally sure of is that Laura would do anything to secure Andy’s happiness. (And we mean anything.)

In a lesser actor’s hands, Laura’s complexities would contradict themselves to the point of ruin. Collette, on the other hand, is able to perform a high-wire act, constantly showing the audience that there’s more going on behind Laura’s every move. Through Collette, we understand Laura’s immediate wants in a scene even if the characters around her aren’t clued in.

Pieces of Her is ultimately disappointing, but there are moments that feel inspired. Always, those moments belong to Toni Collette.

Watch Pieces of Her on Netflix