Lynne Ramsay's "Die, My Love," an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz's novel, is described as a "jagged, go-for-broke psychodrama" starring Jennifer Lawrence as Grace, an increasingly unhinged new mother, and Robert Pattinson as her husband, Jackson.
Set in a ramshackle rural Montana home, the film delves into a "cauldron of marital nightmare," amplified by chaotic sound design and animalistic motifs including a prowling dog, an inopportune horse, and a tiger on Grace's shirt. The core theme is less about typical postpartum depression and more about a woman's powerful, "feral creature" urges resisting the constraints of domesticity and a restrictive "mom persona."
Lawrence delivers a "bracingly raw" and uncompromising performance, praised for the "abandon" with which she tackles the role, drawing an admiring exclamation of "Mother!"
Grace and Jackson move into a house near his childhood home, previously belonging to his uncle who died by suicide. Jackson's parents, played by Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek (whose "knowing eyes" hint at a similar history), live nearby, suggesting Grace's struggles are part of a larger "gothic American history."
The film, by the director of We Need to Talk About Kevin, works at an intense pitch, prioritizing Grace's "disturbed perspective" over clarity. The soundscape is purposefully chaotic. Grace's manic mindset, as a writer who isn't writing, draws comparisons to Jack Torrance in The Shining.
Pattinson's Jackson is a somewhat stereotypical foil (drinking Budweiser, interested in work or the dog over Grace). While Lawrence and Pattinson show evident chemistry, the review suggests a more conventional leading man might have better clarified the couple's oppositional dynamic.
Grace articulates her distress: "Her son is great... It’s everything else that’s fed," referring mostly to the subtle and overt attempts to confine her.
The review ultimately finds the character study piercing but "tediously overamplified" and "oppressively set" inside the house. Despite its unkempt nature, it praises Ramsay's "delirious portrait of marital hell" for its uncompromising take on parenting and gender roles, rating the film two and a half stars out of four. The film is a Mubi release, rated R.
