REVIEW: ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ is an intense, anxiety-filled ride

Alas, this is not a martial arts movie. If that were the case, it would probably be, “If I Had Legs I’d Roundhouse Kick You.”

Instead, this movie focuses on a vastly overstressed mother, Linda (Rose Byrne), who doesn’t have much support in what she’s going through. Her daughter has a stomach disorder, meaning she requires the use of a feeding tube each night, and has to reach a certain level of weight for an operation.

While dealing with that, a massive hole breaks open in the ceiling of her apartment, with an accompanying busted pipe, leading to a flooded home. Oh yeah, and her husband is absent as he’s working away from home, plus she’s strained at work as a psychologist with a mix of difficult patients. Needless to say, it’s a difficult period we find the protagonist in.

There’s a great episode of “The Simpsons” where a hurricane strikes Springfield and, after the townspeople fail to properly rebuild his house, Ned Flanders goes ballistic before admitting himself into a mental health facility. When there, he gleefully asks to be dragged to his room kicking screaming.

It was really easy to think about that scene during this film, because it felt like the direction Rose Byrne’s character was going toward for an hour and 45 minutes. Life decides to really throw the kitchen sink at Linda in this flick, and it results in a movie full of anxiety, tension, and general uncomfortableness.

The pressure on Linda is immense, and the picture captures that in robust fashion by having a very tight focus on the protagonist. Mary Bronstein, who wrote and directed the picture, keeps a spotlight on the amplified agitations that pile on top of Linda’s effort to care for her daughter, and it provides a window into the tough side of parenthood.

In addition to doing this via the plot, closely following every step of Linda’s journey, it’s also true through the camerawork. The movie noticeably doesn’t show either the daughter or husband for more than 90 percent of the flick. Instead, Linda is closed in on. It makes for an intriguing look into the mental health of someone facing a multitude of life’s challenges all at once.

At the same time, the constant hardships thrown at the character begins to feel excessive, and in turn, makes the film seem repetitive. This woman’s husband is away, her daughter is sick, the daughter needs to hit a goal to have an operation, her home is flooded, contractors aren’t repairing it, she has a patient in crisis and even the front desk clerk of the hotel she’s staying at is awful.

That’s a ton for any person to be faced with. It’s understandable that the film wanted to get across the stressors, but after a while it just seems like the film is kind of spinning its tires as Bronstein keeps tossing hurdles in the protagonist’s path.

Rose Byrne deserves all the credit for getting across the crushing burden Linda is carrying. The pure, unfiltered, exhaustion, pain and general psychological misery Linda has is expressed immensely well. Byrne is an absolute force on screen in this.

So, Bronstein’s film has one of the better performances of 2025 and it offers a noteworthy look into how tumultuous motherhood can be when life gets difficult. However, the film can start to feel tedious in the second half, with the experience having a ‘more of the same’ vibe because of the repetitive nature. 3.6 out of 5.