1/2
USA | Canada | UK 2025
Opening November 13, 2025
Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
Writing credits: Lynne Ramsay, Enda Walsh, Alice Birch, Ariana Harwicz
Principal actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek
Scottish director Lynne Ramsay and co-writers Enda Walsh and Alice Birch’s screenplay, based on Argentinian Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 eponymous novel, create a terrifying world of untethered passions, madness, mutual dependencies, and mixed messages in Die My Love. Grace and Jackson’s strange, tangled relationship comes into sharp focus with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson delivering intensely powerful, nuanced performances while dancing, crawling, and prowling across the screen. Their fiery relationship is unchecked once installed in old Uncle Frank’s homestead. Compared to New York City, Montana’s rural remoteness is what they yearned for with its quiet spaces for Grace’s writing, as well as open fields to freely roam encouraging their imaginations, lust.
Jackson’s family embrace them and celebrate the impending childbirth; Jackson’s mom Pam (Sissy Spacek) easily dismisses advice friends shower on the pregnant Grace yet hands out her own. Disconsolately listening, Grace’s interest is drawn to the future grandfather’s (Nick Nolte) detached disengagement. Soon after, the baby is born and Jackson is traveling more. the free-spirited Grace finds herself going stir-crazy trying to balance feelings of being trapped although loving her baby, loneliness as opposed to solitude, and wanting companionship, if not exclusivity. Her imagination works overtime; she tongue-lashes sales assistants, is transfixed by the motorcycle-riding neighbor (LaKeith Stanfield), takes rambling walks at all hours and, trying to harness her inner despondent turmoil and volatile feelings, reaches out to Pam. Who grapples with loss herself. Does Grace’s psychosis begin the rift? The chasm grows between the couple engulfing priorities and personalities that Jackson magnifies by bringing home a yipping, nervous dog plus his indulgence.
Seamus McGarvey’s composed, agile cinematography with Toni Froschhammer’s editing’s heightened flexibility strongly support Ramsey’s whiplash vision and juxtaposition of skewed causes/effects. Lawrence’s transmogrifying character depiction is riveting, the central catalyst moving the story forward. Although humor exists in its darkest moments, Die My Love’s bleakness, its raw unvarnished representation of lifestyles is crucial to understanding the depth of Grace’s despair. Whereas Pattinson’s sangfroid portrayal of the enigmatic Jackson is unnerving; just what does he spend his time doing? That plainly nourishes Grace’s ingeniousness. The film’s music (Raife Burchell, Lynne Ramsay, George Vjestica) is as mercurial as it is merciful. Slices of reality are tangled in the individual perspectives to tease and confound viewers’ interpretation of spiraling hope. 118 minutes (Marinell H.)