Jennifer Lawrence stuns in this poetic film about postpartum depression by Lynne Ramsay.
Written by Susan Dijker
Die, My Love is an adaptation of the Argentinian novel Matate, Amor, directed by Lynne Ramsay. Jennifer Lawrence takes the lead as Grace, with Robert Pattinson’s Jackson as her worthy counterpart. The film premiered at the 78th Festival de Cannes earlier this year, and will have its theatrical release this November.
Grace and Jackson move from New York to Montana, in search of a quieter life. Here they build their family, and have a baby boy. The film follows Grace as she deals with a postpartum depression that eventually turns into psychosis. Told from her perspective, the story takes the audience along with Grace's emotions. As a result of her mental state Grace experiences things in a distorted way, which makes her unreliable as a narrator. Jackson doesn’t really seem to notice or care how bad his partner is doing. This could, however, just be the way that Grace experiences their relationship, and not the reality of the situation. In this way of telling the story the audience is made to sympathize with Grace on a deeper level, even if the portrayed emotions are not immediately relatable to everyone.
The film starts with Grace and Jackson arriving in their new house for the first time. Their life in New York before this moment isn’t ever shown. Personally, I would have liked to see a comparison between these two environments to emphasize the extreme transition. The movie does a great job at portraying the isolation of their rural home, but I think showing Grace and Jackson’s lives in New York would have made it a lot clearer that this loneliness is a new thing for them.
The house plays a central role in the portrayal of Grace’s mental state. For most of the movie there is little to no furniture, showing the emptiness of her emotions and an unreadiness to commit to this new life. Only after she has been in a mental institution is it that the house is fully decorated. Not by Grace, but by her husband. The house serves as a sign to the others in their lives, that everything should be good now, that Grace should be good. In this sense I think that the rural location and the old house serve their purpose really well.
It might have been nice if a comparison was made between Grace’s and Jackson’s realities. This seems to happen for one event, towards the end of the movie. After we see Grace run away from her wedding she is committed to a mental hospital. When she reflects here on the past months, we are shown the event of her running away again, but this time some things are different. For me, it felt super insightful to see the contrast of Grace’s warped experience and the actual reality. I think doing this throughout the entire film would have made it a bit less abstract and more accessible to a broader audience. However, I understand and appreciate the choice to only show Grace’s perspective. After all, this is a film about women’s experiences with postpartum depression, not about how the outside world views them.
Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is outstanding. She fills most of the time on screen by herself, and does so in a way that other actors aren’t missed at all. As a major fan of Robert Pattinson I should say that I would have liked to see a little bit more of him in this film, but it truly would have been a shame to take any attention away from Lawrence. I will not be surprised if she takes home an Oscar for this role.
Die, My Love is, overall, a strong portrayal of women’s mental health problems. The choices that were made serve the story and the performances are incredible. Though the film can be quite abstract at times, and leaves you with more questions than answers, I think it’s a great watch.
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