by Julian Wood
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Lakeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte
Intro:
A lot of the film has the freewheeling individualistic style that Lynne Ramsay brought to her Morvern Callar (2002), but this one is much more ‘Hollywood’ in other ways.
In 2011, the uncompromising Lynne Ramsay made We Need to talk about Kevin, which was so unflinching about domestic cruelty and mother-child relations that it was almost unbearable. Further, 2017’s You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix must go down as one of the weirdest serial killer movies of all time – and that’s saying something in the pantheon of films that includes Psycho and Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Her latest film Die My Love continues Ramsay’s near-obsession with the pain and doubt of parenting.
Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and her husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) have moved to a remote location to live in a rundown house. This is ostensibly so that Grace can get back to her writing, but it is soon clear that she has the mother of all writer’s blocks. When she has a baby, things go from bad to worse. The mothering might have given her a focus and even an impetus to write. Pretty soon, however, her post-natal depression swallows up everything, including her capacity to love her husband and child and eventually her sanity.
Her mother-in-law (an economical supporting turn from Sissy Spacek) is torn between helping Grace and protecting the baby. She advises Grace to take time out, but we know that Grace can’t hear even the most well-meaning advice. Meanwhile, Jackson just keeps numbly going to work. He tries to hold things together, but that too has its natural limits.
There is pathos in Grace’s predicament. Perhaps a feminist view of it might blame her man for not fully understanding how bad post-natal depression is, but then again, what could he really do?
It is not all gloom. The early knockabout falling in love scenes are both tender and charming. We definitely want this slightly mismatched couple to succeed, which makes the eventual collapse more poignant. Ramsay’s knack for using songs in her films is on full display, skillfully adding to the mood. A lot of the film has the freewheeling individualistic style that the filmmaker brought to her Morvern Callar (2002), but this one is much more ‘Hollywood’ in other ways.
There is something awry here; either in the way Lawrence acts or is directed. She seems to have taken a few missteps recently (c/f the dreadful No Hard Feelings) and this one won’t necessarily bring her back. If you were unkind, you could say that it was an Oscar-baiting piece of mammoth overacting. She frequently goes into chewing the scenery mode and then some. No doubt some will describe this as ‘brave’, but it is too repetitive and one note to count as a great performance. We can hardly bear to be in her company for a moment longer than the film’s grueling running time. The last truly successful film that Lawrence was in was Darren Aronofosky’s Mother!, where, as here, Lawrence has to come apart at the seams. There is a difference though, in that film we could feel more sympathy about the world driving her mad, in this one she is driving the world mad.
To return to Ramsay though, she is still a director to watch, and she hasn’t burnt all her directing capital. There are incredible scenes here that show her [overused word, ed] visionary qualities. There is one scene, in particular, that contains the kind of perfect combination of dreamlike unreality and terrible beauty that could have come out of a Tarkovsky film.
Even though one is left with the feeling that this film should have lived up to its pedigree better, it is still worth watching and pondering further.
