CW: This article references fictitious self-harm, sexual violence and psychosis. Please refer to the end of the article for on- and off-campus resources.
Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love,” based on Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 novel, follows Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and her husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) as they move into his late uncle’s abandoned home in rural Montana and, soon after, give birth to a baby boy. What is at first a compatible, sexually-charged and romantically harmonious relationship quickly devolves into torturous loathing as Grace suffers from postpartum depression. Through its stylistic fragmentation and collapsing of objective and subjective realities, “Die My Love” is as erratic and wild as its rapidly disintegrating protagonist. Unfortunately, it ultimately suffocates itself in its commitment to delivering such an artistic sensory experience, leading to occasional incomprehensibility which lessens the commentary’s meaningfulness.
Surrounded by creatures — notably, a majestic black horse whose freedom mocks Grace’s smothering imprisonment and an infuriating, incessantly barking dog — Grace regresses to an animalistic craze, constantly crawling on all fours. While this action perfectly embodies her eroding sense of self, it begins feeling repetitive and meaningless after the third or fourth instance. Similarly, the brief affair Grace entertains with a motorcyclist neighbor (LaKeith Stanfield) is inexplicable and feels somewhat out of place alongside the more concrete and clear depictions of her struggle and decaying relationship. However, other physical portrayals of Grace’s increasing insanity, like her manic dancing at her wedding, her disembodied destruction of her bathroom and her constant self-harming impulses, are immensely successful and truly heartbreaking.
Beyond Grace’s physical representation of her psychosis, “Die My Love” establishes her loss of identity through its fragmented editing and occasionally confusing chronological circularity. In contrast with the sprawling openness of rural Montana, the film’s claustrophobic framing constantly closes in on Grace as her domesticity becomes a prison sentence. When she is eventually institutionalized, fluorescent lights loom menacingly overhead, and repeated scenes interposed with Grace’s past and future disrupt the audience’s grasp on reality. While films that are distrustful can be frustrating, the lack of clarity is key to understanding Grace’s slipping grasp on normalcy and reality.
Though some scenes are confusing and others entirely unexplainable, the film is a resplendent, occasionally excessively blue-tinted, visual masterpiece that (almost) never fails to be beautiful. The incontestable beauty of a near-idyllic rural town with starry open skies contrasts with the jarring editing to amplify an overarching feeling of unease. This is supplemented by the script’s periodic ventures into comedic exchanges, which Lawrence and Pattinson navigate deftly.
“Die My Love” also explores the fracturing effects of parenting, as it amplifies and aggravates each fault line that exists between Jackson and Grace. At first overtly sexual, their relationship quickly suffers from Jackson’s ignorance of, or possible unwillingness to satisfy, Grace’s sexual desires. Consistently unfulfilled and dejected, Grace resorts to frequent masturbation to quell her lust, which only exacerbates the distance between the two. Imagination and reality blur as Grace envisions Jackson cheating on her, and Grace seeks out the motorcyclist, though it’s unclear whether he is aware of her unfaithfulness. Similarly, whether the forest fire Grace starts by burning the scrawled beginnings of her great American novel is real or purely symbolic is somewhat frustratingly unclear. While the confusion created by the film’s structure and its narrative allows the audience to connect with the protagonist’s experience, it often renders the viewing experience more difficult and hard to follow.
The film also touches on the terrifying and intertwined realities of grief and loneliness as they consume Jackson’s mother, Pam (Sissy Spacek), transforming “Die My Love” into a larger study on the stigma around women’s mental health. After losing her husband, a grief-stricken Pam wallows in her loneliness and begins sleep-walking, always with her late husband’s rifle in hand. While Jackson ignores Grace’s fading identity, Pam understands and advocates for Grace, establishing an underlying sense of female empowerment throughout a film that is largely dominated by stigma-induced misunderstandings.
Grace and Jackson’s tension, sexual at times and hateful at others, is perfectly embodied in Lawrence’s and Pattinson’s tremendous performances. Lawrence impeccably captures the complexities of both the madness and the heartbreaking nature of Grace’s unraveling identity through a deeply vulnerable and committed physical performance, which I hope to see highly praised throughout the upcoming awards season. Pattinson counterbalances Lawrence perfectly, sometimes unflinchingly shouldering her snarkiness and sometimes reacting explosively. Spacek was equally incredible, perfectly embodying her eerily tormented and sweetly maternal character.
Overall, while “Die My Love” occasionally loses itself in its frenzied and unruly stylistic choices, it is an important and moving examination of female mental health, highlighting the abysmal effects of implicit stigma toward women as they experience motherhood, depression and grief.
Resources: On-campus resources include Health Education Services (202-687-8949) and Counseling and Psychiatric Service (202-687-6985); additional off-campus resources include the D.C. Rape Crisis Center (202-333-7273), the D.C. Victim Hotline (844-443-5732) and the D.C. Forensic Nurse Examiner Washington Hospital Center (202-742-1736).
Correction: This article was updated Dec. 6 to correctly reflect contact information for off-campus resources.
