Die My Love (MA)
Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek
Review by: Julian Wright
The stifling nature of domesticity and a growing mental illness sends a young mother into a nightmarish spiral in the harrowing Die My Love.
When New York creatives Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jack (Robert Pattinson) move into their inherited cottage in the middle of Montana, it is supposed to be a beautiful new chapter in their lives.
Grace becomes pregnant and the couple begin raising their son – except Jack mostly works away, leaving Grace alone with the baby, no family, friends, or neighbours.
As the isolation and writer’s block takes its toll, Grace’s behaviour becomes erratic – but soon it appears that it is something much deeper that is affecting her.
Grace goes through the gamut of emotions associated with new motherhood: fatigue, low self-esteem, isolation, but it is compounded with this new lifestyle change that does not agree with her.
She is dying to express herself but doesn’t know how – it is frustrating and upsetting, for her and the viewer.
Lawrence is completely fearless and uninhibited in her portrayal of Grace, behaving child-like at certain times and then animalistic in others.
It is a performance that is fascinating to watch.
Die My Love is one of the best made films that captures exactly what it intends to and creates a mood and feeling that it intends to – the thing is it that the mood and feeling is dire.
Director Lynne Ramsay has such a strong hold and focus on the material that it is borderline documentary levels of realism.
This is a wonderful example of women telling stories about a woman’s experience, one that deserves to be told and explored, to allow visibility for those who have experienced it and educate those that have not.
And while it is definitely not a film intended to be enjoyed, it can certainly be admired, if one can endure the feeling of being different shades of frustrated, depressed and miserable for two hours.
Reel Review Roundup 