Die, My Love

Pity the poor baby or yapping canine that gets in the way of the young couple played by Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson whose toxic spiral of physical and mental abuse and self-harm catapult them down the rocky road to domestic meltdown.

Adapted from the novel Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz it’s an uneasy watch, ostensibly spurred in Lawrence’s character by post-natal depression and in her partner by his attempts to calm things down which only result in upping the ante.

The couple, Grace and Jackson, have moved in to an isolated home in the forests of upstate New York, an inheritance from his late uncle. The trouble begins after Grace gives birth to a baby son and starts exhibiting signs of mental disorder (crawling around outside on all fours clutching a knife is just one of the signs). Jackson’s mother (Sissy Spacek) insists that probably it is a passing phase - not uncommon, she suggests, in new mothers.

Grace, however, descends further into madness, sneaking off to mis-=appropriate a shotgun from her mother-in-law. Meanwhile Jackson disappears off to his day job (possibly as a musician) and returns one day with a dog when the house really needs a cat to deal with unspecified vermin.

Spacek’s attempts to pour oil on troubled emotions while dealing with the death of her husband (played by Nick Nolte) mainly rebound. In an attempt to stabilise the relationship the couple decide to get married - in a ceremony that is bizarrely inappropriate in the circumstances.

Ramsay declines to give clear signposts as to where the mayhem is headed, expecting viewers to hold tightly to their seat belts as events unfold. Grace starts to become ever more destructive while becoming infatuated by a mystery motorcyclist (LaKeith Stanfield).

After committing his wife to a mental institution for treatment Jackson attempts to put in order the ramshackle house and eventually welcomes back his wife to the domestic environment. Whatever treatment has been administered has only worked superficially and the couple are soon at war again. Most of her venom, mercifully, remains directed at her husband. Ramsay deliberately time-shifts the narrative and chronology which leads to further confusion in the frenetic free-for-all. Her style takes no prisoners: you either get it or you don’t.

Reviewed on: 18 May 2025