Can a house drive you crazy? I’ve seen plenty of horror movies in my time where that might seem to be the case, but usually there’s extenuating circumstances that usually feed into someone’s crisis, without it being a surface-level scenario. Die My Love oozes of those same horror-genre tendencies when a young couple moves into a family member’s house who has recently died of suicide. But what ultimately drove Uncle Frank to do kill himself? Was it madness?
Upon moving into an isolated Montana farmhouse, a very-pregnant Grace (complicatedly portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson) are in high spirits. She’s a published author; he’s a traveling salesman, of sorts. But once she delivers her baby boy, her life becomes the Upside Down.
Grace is restless. She wants to be wanted, but he’s always away. With very little contact to the outside world, the symptoms of her postpartum depression eventually grow so severe, she’s become out of touch with reality. Dark secrets and a dark stranger complicate things. By the time Jackson finally starts to open up to Grace again, his health begins to erode. They both seem quite alone in this relationship.
Grace is volatile, a constant explosion ready to ignite without any notice. She doesn’t make the best decisions, as reactionary primal instincts rule her world. There were signs, but Jackson doesn’t notice them until it’s too late and the slow-burn storyline reveals she’s got lingering childhood abandonment issues and traumas.
“Sometimes, all we need is a little break… right?”
So close, but yet so far away from each other: Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson) deal with a rocky relationship in Die My Love. Photo Courtesy: Kimberley French.
Die My Love is a complicated tale that can be described as a psychological drama, a thriller and even a darkly comedic take on mental illness. While the crumbling farmhouse isn’t the root evil here, its isolation horror symbolizes a pain that hides within so many people who could and should seek help, yet they stay to themselves, away from everybody else.
This film is definitely hard to watch at times. It’s heavy in the feelings, but not heavy-handed in its storytelling (it’s important to pay attention to the music’s lyrics, here). The two main characters are emotionally abusive to each other (as well to the audience). At the very least, they can’t see each other eye to eye, always getting distracted by something else. An indescribable sadness lies behind their eyes and their thoughts, one which both brings their lives together, as well as keeps them disconnected.
JLaw gets the most credit here, as she tackles a complicated character with an identity crisis. Who is she? And how do you cram two different people into one character? It was difficult to keep plodding on with Writer-Director Lynne Ramsay’s tale, but I just couldn’t look away from Lawrence’s intense performance (especially her monumental temper tantrums) here. I’m not sure if love had anything to do with it, but rage burns deep within her soul, which no relationship can quench. And much like the children’s book that her character reads aloud that ambiguously ends, so does this film.
Grace and Jackson are not really likeable characters, in fact I felt more emotion for the neglected pet dog and the neighbors’ runaway horse than the film’s main characters, even though I was sympathetic toward them. But being featured in a movie that includes Sissy Spacek, Nick Nolte and LaKeith Stanfield in a return to the big screen for Ramsay, I was surprised this one hasn’t really resonated at the domestic box office (it’s currently still being shown in movie theaters).
Forget the farmhouse, a film with 20 producers feels like it’s overly complex, regardless.
While Jennifer Lawrence deserves all the accolades here, poor Robert Pattinson didn’t have a lot of content to work with. And that’s OK; he’s still got The Batman franchise to highlight his emotional range. She bares her soul (and her clothes, which didn’t seem too difficult this time around). As the awards season winds down, don’t be surprised to see a little more of JLaw. She’s definitely got my Best Actress nomination.
“Everybody goes a little loopy in the first year…”