From Nightbitch to If I Had Legs I’d Kick You to the most recent entry, Die My Love, we’ve had a slew of recent movies about the struggles of motherhood. Sometimes presented as horror, sometimes as a bizarre metaphor, sometimes as a grimly funny psychological exploration, we’ve seen mothers battle societal expectations and their own sanity on screen to varying degrees of effectiveness.

In Die My Love, Jennifer Lawrence stars as writer-turned-mother Grace. She’s just moved into a country house with her husband (Robert Pattinson) and their newborn, with the aim of taking care of the baby while she writes the great American novel. But soon she finds herself isolated, struggling with postpartum depression, and coming unglued. 

Lawrence’s performance packs a punch. She uses her natural charm to make Grace sympathetic, but also entirely unhinged, tapping into physicality and vulnerability that will make her an award season darling. The slow descent into madness can be humorous at times, heartbreaking at others, and then turn infuriating in an instant. 

Grace is in mourning for the life she had prior to the baby, a life filled with passion that now seems like a distant memory. Her current situation feels both overwhelming and completely empty. Even when she might find windows of kindness from random cashiers, friends, or her mother-in-law (Sissy Spacek), she’s emotionally incapable of responding normally because her mental state is too unstable, and no one has noticed until it was already too late. 

While the film does conjure up strong emotions depending on how much you can empathize with Grace, it can occasionally feel a bit languid in pace and rely on common tropes to convey its message. 

Grace’s obsession with a mysterious motorcycle rider (LaKeith Stanfield) and the recurring use of a black horse can create some uncomfortable parallels with the way Black men are sometimes fetishized by white women looking to break free of societal norms. 

Similarly, Grace’s animosity toward the dog her useless husband brings home feels like it leans too hard on that “women going crazy and hurting animals” trope we used to see more frequently in psychological thrillers from the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

Women can self-destruct in ways that don’t involve animal cruelty or outward destruction. In fact, using these tropes can sometimes make it easier to dismiss actual mental health struggles because these cliche “crazy” acts have been used so often.

Like Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Lawrence delivers a powerhouse performance that feels emotional, raw, and real, but the story lacks anchor points that make us truly invest in Grace as a character. We feel for her as her mental state disintegrates, but we don’t really know her. 

Much like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Die My Love is not a pleasant watch. It’s a harrowing movie about a woman crumbling, something you should watch more than you might want to watch.