Die My Love review: Jennifer Lawrence delivers a powerful performance in Lynne Ramsay's intense drama
Lynne Ramsay returns with a raw and primal exploration of motherhood in Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. From the opening scene, a wild energy pulses through the film, as Lawrence and Pattinson’s characters, Grace and Jackson, navigate tall grass like predators on a hunt.
Based on the 2012 novel by Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz, Ramsay’s adaptation depicts Grace and Jackson as deeply hungry—for love, for sex, and for a fresh start in life. After moving to Jackson’s uncle’s dilapidated, isolated house, the couple quickly have a baby, triggering a drastic change in Grace.
Overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood, Grace retreats to primal routines: feeding, changing nappies, and sleeping. While she dreams of writing a novel and Jackson hopes to make an album, those ambitions fade into the background. Instead, Grace’s psychological state deteriorates, and her raw instincts resurface. She dances in her underwear, roams the house with a knife, and masturbates out of boredom.
The expansive but confining spaces of her home—captured by Ramsay through an intimate, claustrophobic Academy ratio—feel more like a prison than a sanctuary.
Lynne Ramsay reaffirms herself as one of our foremost observers of humanity.
This emotionally intense film exposes the brutal realities of motherhood and the fragile boundaries of sanity, driven by Jennifer Lawrence’s best performance to date.
Author's summary: Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love delivers a visceral portrayal of motherhood’s raw struggles, anchored by Jennifer Lawrence’s deeply compelling performance.