★★★ (3 out of 4)
Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t play it safe as an actress. And her gift for walking the highwire pays off big time in “Die My Love,” now in theaters where you won’t know what hit you. And even if you feel wrung out like a rag at the end or the middle or, hell, right from the beginning, don’t discourage Lawrence. Risk becomes her.
So watch out as Lawrence gets paired with Lynne Ramsey, the hellcat Scottish director who doesn’t know from comfort zones. Try “Ratcatcher” or “We Need to Talk About Kevin” if you need an introduction. Then all will be clear. Ramsey lives to push boundaries. Bless her for that, though “Die My Love” may end up pushing you too far.
At first you might mistake Lawrence and her ruggedly appealing costar Robert Pattison for romcom darlings. But that lasts for maybe 30 seconds when we pick up that Grace (Lawrence), a wannabe writer, and Jackson (Pattinson), who works hard at something too dull for the film to mention, have moved from New York to a house in deep-country Montana that belonged to an uncle of Jackson’s who offed himself. A definite red flag.
Grace and Jackson have mad-hot-sex on the floor and, boom, there’s a baby. Well maybe it takes longer than a boom, but not much.
Happy ending? Jeez, are you in the wrong movie. Enter the third big star in the script Ramsey and Edna Walsh have adapted from the slim novel by Ariana Harwicz: post-partum depression. Wait a minute: that’s too easy. Loneliness is also getting to Grace when Jackson is away, which is a lot. So lack of sex, yes, and also other needs unfulfilled. See the movie; I’m not telling you everything, except that Grace turns feral pretty quick, down on all fours in the tall grass, the whole nine yards.
Like Lawrence’s emotionally naked tour de force, this is a movie that hits hard—no mercy.
Her mother-in-law, Pam, played with Sissy Spacek sweetness by Spacek herself, suggests yoga. Please. But Grace can relate to Pam’s grief about losing her husband (Nick Nolte) just as she brings new life into the world, as scary as the prospect sounds.
Grace obsesses over a hottie local biker (LaKeith Stanfield), but that might be because Jackson is cheating on her, which he sure is if only in her carnal fantasies. Are we in “Night Bitch” territory? You wish. At least that would be a relatable delusion. For Grace, it’s all agonizingly real.
What’s happening here is soul-deep crazy—that’s not the technical term. And sometimes it’s darkly, dazzlingly funny, as in Grace’s encounter with a supermarket register and a party with other young mothers whose vocabulary doesn’t move past the mention of children.
It’s not that Grace doesn’t love her baby boy. She’s simply loosened the reins on herself. Seamus McGarvey’s luminous, day-and-night cinematography makes things look great. Not Grace, though, who’s definitely given up in that department. Housework? Forget it. Dressing? That’s optional.
And omg, the noise! Ramsey wallpapers her cinematic pressure cooker with the relentless sounds of buzzing flies, scratching rats, yelping dogs and music that goes so far past 11 that Grace’s head looks ready to blow. Audiences will soon know the feeling.
And despite all the angst that comes with waiting for tightly wound Grace to exhale, “Die My Love” is still a work of staggering ambition that needs seeing. Lawrence hasn’t climbed the risk rung this high since “Mother,” and her intuitive comic anarchy bleeds into the drama with hallucinatory brilliance.
Pattinson has a smaller role, but he fills it with fresh detail and a forlorn charm. When the two dance in the kitchen we detect a fragile connection that just might grow a spine.
The two duet and dance to “In Spite of Ourselves,” a song that echoes the tune Ramsey rasps over the final credits. It’s Joy Division's “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” and in it we can feel the violence ripping at Grace and Jackson but with a hint of hope.”
Don’t get me wrong. In its random, riveting analysis of psychosis, “Die My Love” stays potently and proudly unhinged. Ramsey isn’t one for tying things up with a pretty bow. Like Lawrence’s emotionally naked tour de force, this is a movie that hits hard—no mercy.