Review: Lynne Ramsay’s DIE MY LOVE Starring Jennifer Lawrence & Robert Pattinson Delivers Powerful Cinema
Cinema is an interesting art form. It can be used for far-fetched escapism, offering up a couple of hours refuge from the troubles of the real world as you are transported into another realm in thrilling ways. However, cinema can be something thought provoking – a film that captures the attention and makes you think about real life situations and moments that you’d never have even imagined. It might not necessarily be entertaining, but it can dig deep into your soul and have a lasting impact.
Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love is like that. It’s not a film that entertains in the conventional sense – and it’s not something that may have you rushing back to a second viewing – but you can’t deny the power that it packs. The film is an experiential cinematic face punch. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson both strong deliver strong performances in this near panic-inducing look at someone unravelling. The whole thing plays out like the love child of Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!. It’s a loose and wild film that defies convention, feeling both hypnotic and exhausting at the same time.
Grace (Lawrence) and her partner Jackson (Pattinson) move into an old and isolated country house. She strives to work as a writer and he travels for work. Soon she falls pregnant and has a baby, but loneliness and isolation soon take their toll. Based on Ariana Harwicz’s novel (notable for the comma in the title), Ramsay co-wrote the screenplay with Enda Walsh and Alice Birch and it’s a real performance piece. The characters are flimsy but the acting is sturdy and the impressive turns (special note to Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte) craft something that feels weighty despite its slight plotting (it feels like something you’d find in a three minute Springsteen song). Throw in strong visuals from cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and a punchy soundtrack – and this has the essence of cinema when it could ultimately have felt very stagey.
Die My Love won’t be for everyone. The plotting is opaque and sometimes it’s difficult to know where reality and fantasy intersect – or if they even intersect at all. In a sense, Die My Love is not necessarily enjoyable. It’s intense and the viewer is bombarded by a host of emotions that run the risk of sensory overload. But that’s where art and entertainment meet – the crux of narrative and the abstract – which leads to something memorable that will continue to resonate. And isn’t that the reason we continue to watch film – for the ways in which the cinematic art form continues to affect us?
Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love is available now on DVD from Mubi.
