Die My Love

While not having quite the same goals and intent, it’s impossible to put Lawrence’s far more viscerally powerful work in MOTHER! out of mind while watching this: it’s a far more teasingly ambiguous work, which centers on a typically brave, go-for-broke performance from Lawrence. She’s a subjective (perhaps unreliable) narrator here, which leaves plenty of room for interpretation of the ensuing events, and relies on a fine support cast to navigate the necessarily wonky and inconsistent characterisations; Pattinson is almost as impressive as Lawrence, swinging from manic emotion to careworn sobriety, and Spacek provides a needed anchor as a grounded, salt-of-the-earth in-law…. who still manages to contribute to some of the eeriest and most chilling scenes. I’m not sure what Ramsay is attempting to say about the disorienting and discombobulating nature of new-motherhood, as much as she is giving the viewer a taste of the emotional state it can produce, but it is still a gripping and quite powerful film in its way, though it may be ultimately too inconclusive for its own good.