DIE MY LOVE

(director/writer: Lynn Ramsay; screenwriters: based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz, Enda Walsh, Alice Birch; cinematographer: Seamus MacGarvey; editor: Toni Froschhammmer; music: Lynn Ramsay, Raife Burchell, George Viestica; cast: Jennifer Lawrence (Grace), Robert Pattinson (Jackson), Nick Nolte (Harry), Sissy Spacek (Pam), LaKeith Stanfield (Karl), Tom Carey (Therapist), Gabrielle Rose (Jen), Martin Scorsese; Runtime: 118; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Trent Luckinbill, Andrea Calderwood, Justine Ciarrocchi, Lisa Walsh, Molly Smith; MUBI; 2025-UK/USA/Canada)

“Lawrence is good at doing B-film self-destructive crazy.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The nonlinear, queasy and upsetting romantic drama by Scottish writer/director Lynn Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”/”Swimmer”) is based on the 2012 novel by Ariana Harwicz and is co-written by Ramsay, Enda Walsh, and Alice Birch.

The bi-polar, heavy drinking, and moody Grace (Jennifer Lawrence), lives in an old house in rural Montana that previously belonged to the suicidal uncle of her unfaithful husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson). Hubby has a job that keeps him away from home for long stretches. Grace is suffering from postpartum depression, as she looks after her infant and thinks about writing a novel but can’t get her writing career started.

The stressed-out, sleepwalking Pam (Sissy Spacek), Jackson’s mom, lives in a house next door with her dementia-suffering husband Harry (Nick Nolte), who needs lots of home-care.

The couple’s love life is good at first when moving here from the city, but Jackson no longer wants to have sex with her. They quarrel over this, as she demands sex.

Without a sex life the fragile Grace starts hallucinating, as she fantasizes about having sex with an imagined guy in a parking lot who appears to look like the mysterious guy on a motorcycle named Karl (LaKeith Stanfield) who regularly rides by her neighborhood. When Grace bruises herself after each imagined sexual encounter, her fantasies look real.

Lawrence is good at doing B-film self-destructive crazy. But aside from that, the dysfunctional family drama offers little insight into the problems it raises about motherhood.

It played at the Cannes Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 11/16/2025  GRADE: B dennisschwartzreviews.com