Seeing actors you like headline a film can get a person excited. It’s always a shame when that excitement turns to disappointment. Alas, that’s the case here.
The actors in this picture are Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, who star as the newlywed couple Grace and Jackson. “Die My Love” centers on their life as they raise a newborn boy in a rural area in an old home. Unfortunately, any honeymoon phase for the couple is short-lived.
The stress of her new life causes Grace’s mental health to gradually decline, and it impacts those around her as the movie goes on. The situation puts Jackson in a difficult position, as he’s unsure of how he can help improve what’s become a harsh home life.
“Die My Love” is a film that seems like it has a lot to say, but no tangible, coherent way to actually say it. The film shows a tense, hectic home life, with the realities of an unsatisfied family trying to settle down below a middle-class level.
It’s clearly a bad marriage situation and Grace is on a downward trajectory. However, it never feels like the plot is ever thickening. By the time the film gets to the halfway point, it feels like there still hasn’t been an inciting incident. There’s just such little thrust with the story.
Sure, it’s a character study, and the film is trying to portray a person experiencing unhappiness and postpartum depression. But the problem is, Grace’s spiral that’s portrayed doesn’t really work because we don’t see her at her best. The audience doesn’t get a sense of who the woman was before, so it’s hard to tell what’s lost.
During the viewing, it was easy to think about last year’s feature, “Nightbitch” with Amy Adams, and how much better that flick captured similar aspects. Additionally, what’s shown with Grace’s arc comes across like a classless display of mental illness.
Grace may be experiencing postpartum depression, but her actions begin to come across like something beyond mental health. There are plenty of scenes where Grace just seems like an awful person to be around, and it’s really a shame when films portray people with mental illness as just insufferable individuals.
The final section of the film pushes things into really rough territory, too. By the time the third act rolls around, it’s hard to have sympathy for the characters, and the final 20 minutes or so is just a bunch of pretentious ides thrown randomly together to see what sticks.
Both Lawrence and Pattinson have proven themselves as performers capable of great acting, and to be fair, they’re both working to make the most of the material given. Yet most of their efforts, admirable as they are, are largely for not.
“Die My Love” is a rudderless exploration of person facing hardship that’s done with little prudence or nuance. It wastes the talents of two award-caliber actors in a poorly plotted, weak narrative. Attempts at artistry and metaphor also often fall flat. 1 out of 5.
Matthew Liedke on Film 