Long and happy begins somewhere here: a young married couple, full of life, overwhelming attraction, and seemingly inexhaustible energy, moves into a house in an almost idyllic spot near the forest. A secluded place where no one will bother Mrs. (Jennifer Lawrence) with her writing, Mr. (Robert Pattinson) with his music, and them together with the love that is outrageously cramped within four walls. Soon there will be three of them, and even four: Grace is pregnant, and Jackson brought home a dog. One might anxiously expect the start of a thriller about the invasion of strangers or a slow-burner about a restless ghost—the house was inherited from an uncle who committed suicide. Whatever threats the external circumstances may seem to hold, a crack is corroding the union from within.
Jennifer Lawrence as Grace in a still from “Die, My Love”
Exploring Female Experience Through Raw Emotion
Talks about fertility, reproductive functions, and other metamorphoses that both the female body and consciousness undergo have not only proven ineffective but are often perceived as a naked feminist statement, a cry for help, rather than an artistic invitation into a personal story. More of a manifesto than a drama. Therefore, female directors have shifted to immersive experiences, attempting not verbally but empathetically to draw the viewer into the state of a mother on the verge of a nervous breakdown. At Sundance and Berlinale, they showed “If You Had Legs, I’d Kick You,” where the hypnotic Rose Byrne and director Mary Bronstein transformed the routine of a tired mother into an existential action. Lynne Ramsay chooses an even more radical amplitude of states: Lawrence’s pendulum swings from absolute apathy to unbridled rage, from frantic despair to all-consuming mania.
Jennifer Lawrence as Grace in a still from “Die, My Love”
The Destructive Impulses Within
The script is based on Arina Harvitch’s novel of the same name—a chronicle of destructive impulses that burst from within like scorching lava. The film begins with a fire scene—an inevitable disaster that awaits both the family on screen and the audience in the hall in the finale. Ramsay seems to be trying to look beyond the human and relies on the natural and animal: first, passion makes you growl and tear towards each other, and then deep, visceral despair makes you howl and almost tear your flesh. It is the “be in someone else’s shoes” method that Ramsay is most often criticized for after screenings: the director prefers rage to reflection, roars to dialogues, and screams to whispers. Lawrence throws herself into all facets of the breakdown with detached courage, dances, screams, crawls on the floor, climbs the walls, almost hangs from the ceiling—restlessness elevated to the absolute, there is no time for introverted experiences; hugging her knees, Grace pours out loneliness in an endless stream of incoherent actions and unrealized desires.
Isolation and Despair
The vulnerability of the mother and the indifference of those around her coincide with the feeling of abandonment and frightening social isolation that the heroine of Tilda Swinton faces in the merciless “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” The mother cannot resist her son and does not receive an antidote to her anxiety in the form of support from loved ones and at least meaningful attention. Grace is literally isolated—the perfect house from a picturesque canvas, which was supposed to be a gentle haven and a world for two + one, turns into a cave, a crypt where love dies. Jackson, who was eagerly fascinated by his wife, not only cooled down physically after the birth of the child but is also incapable of engaging in dialogue. Farewell, speech! The place of remarks and voicing feelings is taken by the endless barking of a dog that cannot find peace.
“Die, My Love” is a rich and stunningly beautiful film of visual expression: Southern Gothic continues to frighten with deserted roads, a woman with a gun at night in a field, the howling of dogs, and all-consuming despair on the ruins of paradise. Jennifer Lawrence herself recently became a mother (Robert Pattinson also became a father) and was forced to take a break from filming. Returning to the big screen under the care of Lynne Ramsay may well become a springboard for new victories and awards in gold—perhaps recognition will begin tomorrow evening with the presentation of the “Golden Palm Branch” for best role.