Director
Lynne Ramsay

Starring
Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson and Sissy Spacek


Ok, let me start with the positives; after 9 years where it felt like Jennifer Lawrence was in everything and was picking up award nominations left, right and centre, it’s been a slower 6 years without much J-Law on our screens. Die My Love is just her fourth film in 6 years, so there was a heightened sense of anticipation, especially when paired with Robert Pattinson and has Sissy Spacek in support. So the good news is, Lawrence still has it. She’s mesmerising in a challenging and highly physical role, and Pattinson and Spacek are incredible in what they’ve turned out in this production. Sadly, that’s where the fanfare ends for me.   

Writer/Director Lynne Ramsay is not afraid to tackle some difficult topics with a clear focus of psychological trauma in her filmmaking. In We Need To Talk About Kevin she explored the psychology of school-shooters and the residual impact on their families and the guilt and anguish that creates. She’s looked at sex trafficking and military related trauma in You Were Never Really Here, and this time around, she’s set her focus on post-partum depression and the effects of isolation for new mothers. On the surface, the topic is an important one, and something that is often overlooked in cinema….because who wants films about women’s issues right?! But how this journey is delivered is both baffling and infuriating.

Lawrence and Pattinson are Grace and Jackson, a young couple who have just inherited a house in rural Montana where Jackson grew up. They soon become pregnant and cracks in their relationship as well as Grace’s mental state begin to form after the baby is born. Die My Love is a look into social isolation and its associated mental fragility and some of the complexities of post-partum depression, but it’s the way that it’s presented that leaves a lot to be desired. The filming style is frenetic and highly disjointed. In an aim to make the viewer understand Grace’s struggle with her own sanity, we’re thrown around within the scene through its editorial choices as well as the stories chronology. There were definitely times that I too felt insane watching this, often asking myself ‘wait, what?’.  But the most anger-inducing trope that is flogged to death in this feature, is the use of hyper-sexualisation as a method of depicting the decline of a woman’s mental health. I mean how else are we meant to know that Grace is going off the rails if she isn’t masturbating in a field or begging for sex at every opportunity? This notion that women only want sexual gratification if they’re unhinged is both hypocritical and damaging. It’s lazy as a storytelling tool and smacks of misogyny. It made me even more mad to realise that the screenplay was written by three women, including the director. It’s a device that’s been done to death and really needs to be retired.

The disorienting filming technique and its lack of cohesion make for an incredibly frustrating viewing. Added to that is the fact that we never really delve into an authentic post-partum experience, only surface level storytelling with a heavy those of artistic theatrics, which makes the film overwhelmingly dull for the most part. Towards the end of the film, I was more invested in what a cinema mouse was doing in the row in front of me than I was with anything that was happening on screen, which is a real shame given the incredible effort that was put in from the actors. I need to make it clear, they are not the problem with this film, that lies entirely with the writing and direction.

Ultimately, Die My Love is an appropriate title for this piece, as by the final credits, I had decided that I most certainly would rather die than ever have to watch this film again.

Die My Love is in cinemas now.