Bella Heathcote’s grounded approach suits horror with family troubles at its centre. We are interested in what she can do, but Pieces of Her leaves us wishing the writing would give her more.
Fi1m perspective
In Pieces of Her (2022), Bella Heathcote’s Andy Oliver has a mother played by Toni Collette and too little time simply to be her daughter. The writing needs their relationship to matter, then keeps redirecting their attention towards another revelation. We were frustrated because we wanted more scenes of these women dealing with one another without the thriller getting in the way. Collette gives Laura Oliver much of the emotional weight that keeps the series watchable. Heathcote has less help from the script, and our disappointment with the programme is not a verdict against her.
Heathcote’s earlier film work includes Beneath Hill 60 (2010) and the role of Victoria Winters in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows (2012). Supporting parts in genre films became a recurring feature of the work, including Gigi in Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon (2016). In that film, the colour, music and unease are more persuasive than the thin dialogue. Elle Fanning gives it some feeling. It is worth approaching for the atmosphere, with patience for the sluggish scenes, rather than as an obvious place to discover what Heathcote can do.
The biographical drama Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) gave her Olive Byrne, a change from those genre settings. Natalie Erika James’s Relic (2020), with Heathcote as Sam, brings the family relationships and the horror together. Her grounded performance there suggests a useful direction: emotionally demanding parts where the people deserve as much attention as what frightens them. That gives us more reason to follow her work than the variety of settings on her list of credits.
A leading role ought to let us know an actor better. Pieces of Her gives Heathcote that prominence, but the series’ length does not solve the shortage of time spent developing Andy and Laura together. For a closer look at her handling of emotionally demanding material, we would begin with Relic.
Biography
Bella Heathcote, also credited as Isabella Heathcote, is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in Acolytes (2008) and had a recurring role in the soap opera Neighbours (2009). She studied drama at the National Theatre in Melbourne.
Heathcote gained wider recognition for her dual roles in Dark Shadows (2012). Her subsequent film work includes In Time (2011), The Rewrite (2014), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), The Neon Demon (2016) as Gigi, Fifty Shades Darker (2017), Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) and Relic (2020). On television she has appeared in The Man in the High Castle (2015–2018), Strange Angel (2018–2019) and Pieces of Her (2022).
