Die My Love. 2025.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, Gabrielle Rose, Sarah Lind, and Debs Howard.
SYNOPSIS:
Grace, a writer and young mother, is slowly slipping into madness. Locked away in an old house in and around Montana, we see her acting increasingly agitated and erratic, leaving her companion, Jackson, increasingly worried and helpless.
Shortly after having a child, there is a scene in co-writer/director Lynne Ramsay’s postpartum portrait Die My Love where Jennifer Lawrence’s aspiring novelist Gracie walks into her writing room, looking down at some ink blotches. While doing so, her breast milk begins to drip onto the ink, mixing with it as if it were paint or another substance. It’s a brilliant visual distillation (captured over the shoulder by cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, who also shoots the film in a claustrophobic ratio) of the film’s overarching theme: a mother stuck between a past life and a new one, trying to maintain that sense of self.
Written alongside Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, Lynne Ramsay’s dramatically cranked up and transfixing film thrusts Jennifer Lawrence across a gamut of emotions, ranging from fleeting moments of happiness as a mother to a newborn, concerns over her artistic ambitions, a high sex drive her exhausted and working husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) has stopped providing for a litany of reasons (some valid and others hypothetical but reasonably questionnable), and all-around distressing behavior stemming from some combination of postpartum depression, boredom, and plans of the idyllic family life not panning out.
Some of this behavior is unsettling (Gracie opens the car door and gestures to throw herself out when she senses another argument with Jackson coming on); other times it is unexpectedly amusing (filling a wine glass up to the top when no one is looking or undressing at a party to walk outside and jump into a pool). The amount of material Jennifer Lawrence has to work with allows her to deliver an unforgettable tornado of a performance, even if some of the film begins to feel repetitive and exhausting, circular, as if nothing will be solved by the time the credits roll.
The obvious counterpoint to that is that, well, it is part of the point to Die My Love. And if one is going to make a film as circular in nature as this, having two of the most talented actors of the generation in Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson going for broke as a rural family living in the middle of nowhere descending into dysfunctional chaos is also one way to counteract that feeling. That’s without getting into the more abstract aspects, such as Gracie feral imitating a dog, or either daydreaming or having delirious fantasies of sexual encounters with a man played by LaKeith Stanfield.
Sometimes it’s all a bit much for one character and movie, but again, that’s likely the point. To say that this character study inevitably leads to a brief stay in a mental hospital and some therapy should shock no one. That is also where some details about Gracie’s life are given that one wishes weren’t withheld until 90 minutes into the two-hour movie.
That’s also not to say Gracie has no support system. Whether or not Jackson’s extended absences while working are actually the result of infidelity (she becomes especially skeptical after finding condoms in the glove compartment), there is quiet beauty in the fact that, for as outwardly concerning as her behavior becomes with him visibly and verbally expressing frustration, they never seem to give up on one another or their love. Fights eventually make way to the occasional light in the dark, typically looping right back around into more arguing.
Gracie also remains in contact with Jackson’s mother, Pam (Siss Spacek), grieving the loss of her husband while also interacting with extended family members at parties who have children of their own. They assure her they also lost their minds for six months. Gracie amusingly replies with an acid tongue, asking her how come she hasn’t found it.
This is both a full-body physical performance from Jennifer Lawrence and one that demands sharp precision in retorts, barbs, and verbal sparring. Robert Pattinson is also game to match her with his own gesture tics and expressive quirks. At times, some of that spirited physicality from both actors can come across slightly exaggerated, but the screenplay and line delivery are fiercely honest. One of the richest pleasures in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love is seeing where the unraveling and dysfunction will take these characters and their respective fearless actors next.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
