Jennifer Lawrence returns with startling force in Lynne Ramsay's Die, My Love. Since her franchise days, Lawrence has been very selective with the projects she takes on, starring in the understated Causeway and Adam McKay's divisive Netflix movie Don't Look Up. Here, the actor returns to her roots in a way, delivering an earth-shattering performance as a mother on the brink. Visceral, bruising, and darkly humorous, Die, My Love hits like a sledgehammer thanks to Lawrence and director Lynne Ramsay's uncompromisingly grim vision of domestic life.
Die, My Love Is About A Woman Going Mad
Lawrence Embodies Grace With A Disturbing Ferality
Lawrence stars as Grace, who, with her boyfriend Jackson (Robert Pattinson, delivering another knockout performance), moves from New York to the expanse of Montana to be closer to Jackson's mother, Pam (Sissy Spacek, in a devastatingly subtle performance). They take up residence in Jackson's uncle's old house after he died by suicide in the recent past. Jackson and Grace are struggling artists, with Jackson eager to take advantage of the secluded home to freely record an album that never comes to fruition.
Grace is a writer, but, like with Jackson, we never actually see her work on a project and, eventually, her ambition is one of the first things to dissipate when she becomes pregnant. Their first months in Monatana are told in dreamy sequences set under the muted Montana sun or the dark green of the night, with the lovers crawling around the barren house naked on all fours or dancing to the music they can now play at a deafening volume. Despite the dilapidated state of the house and the isolation of rural Montana, the couple is happy, embodying an infectious and ecstatic joy, with Pattinson and Lawrence practically vibrating on screen.
That makes it all the more devastating when this joy disappears, though. It doesn't happen overnight – rather, Grace desperately clings to a sense of normalcy, insisting they get a cat to accompany their newborn or still trying to have supper on the table for when Jackson comes home from work. It's hard to tell, really, who pulls away first, but Jackson is increasingly absent and, though Die, My Love is initially about Grace's descent into darkness, the film is best understood through the lens of their co-dependent relationship.
Jackson's violence is much more subtle – unexplained condoms in the glove compartment of his truck, the adoption of a puppy whose incessant barking doesn't do anything to help Grace's deteriorating mental state. He's pulling away as Grace is leaning in, reaching out for connection and, when he refuses to give it, antagonizing him in turn while forming a relationship with a mysterious biker (Lakeith Stanfield) who drives by their house every night, waking the baby (and Grace) in the process.
Lynne Ramsay & Jennifer Lawrence Are A Match Made In Heaven
Really, Die, My Love is a psychotic domestic thriller, though its heart-racing moments don't come from mystery or hidden meaning. Wondering what Grace will do next or how she'll respond to something in her environment is the source of tension here, which makes it all the more difficult to watch as she descends into madness and the people around her try to support her. Pam longs to connect with Grace after the loss of her own husband, but is bewildered by her future daughter-in-law's increasingly erratic behavior, even as she displays flashes of her own deteriorating well-being.
Ramsay doesn't shy away from the flaws of her characters and this corner of rural Montana is filled with people who are struggling to hide their deepest desires and darkest impulses. Those that are the best at it are also those who can so easily feign domestic bliss in the face of chaos. What's so strikingly beautiful about Die, My Love, though, is Ramsay and Lawrence's willingness to lay it all bare and show a harsher side to love and motherhood, one that is often overlooked.
Die, My Love premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. MUBI has acquired the film for theatrical distribution in North America.
