Die My Love is an unapologetically angry film. It doesn't start from a place of perceived normalcy and then spiral into more and more rage. One of the first shots is of a burning forest. Die My Love posits domesticity as aggression and that our protagonist is already fighting for her life. Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman whose insanity is her only way out of the oppressive world she finds herself in. She refuses to act in the way she is expected and pushes back against the normal attempts those around her make to reach out. It is that normalcy that is attacking her and she refuses to participate. It is a fascinating character portrait of someone who simply won't participate in the unspoken rules that are choking her.
Lawrence embraces the role, giving an unflinching performance. She asks us, with her performance, to consider whether her Grace is crazy at all or if she might be the solely sane person in her world. Pattinson plays Jackson as a lost boy who doesn't know what to do. He is playing the game he was taught to play and can't understand why Grace won't. The film slowly reveals that she was never interested in following those rules so why he expected her to fall in line makes little to no sense. His breakdown is quite less dramatic, but equally as tragic.
Director Ramsay pulls no punches, jumping right into the madness and then sustaining it. Die My Love is an indictment of our culture's expectations for relationships and families. It offers no solutions and instead leaves us a little bereft in its nihilism. Lawrence and Ramsay commit to this and it can be a hard watch at times. But its gut punch is fascinating and the nerves it exposes are raw so be ready for it.
Die My Love
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte, Gabrielle Rose
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writers: Enda Walsh, Alice Birch, Lynne Ramsay
No comments:
Post a Comment