One of the salient virtues and primary artistic selling points of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is Rose Byrne’s extreme readiness for her close-up. And it’s a probing, merciless and epic close-up factor at play here — an unforgiving eye. But Byrne greets that fierce cinematic gaze with a truly tour de force performance, as a young mother wrestling a veritable clusterhumph of seemingly unresolvable problems.
Fortunately, it is possible to appreciate writer-director Mary Bronstein’s gripping and gritty film with the detachment allowed through appreciation of the acting whirlwind itself. Investing too deeply in the raw — and broadly relevant — emotionality and subject of parental trauma, as well as the often-underplayed condition of postpartum depression, could be dangerous to one’s mental health. We can take comfort in the proverbial caveat known as the “it’s only a movie” shrug-off.
Not to lean too heavily into cultural semantics, but Bronstein’s achievement is one of those rare cinematic entities which juggle status as both a mainstream-suitable “movie” (albeit a tough one) and a discerning art film. Among her cinematic feats is creating an intense and intimate story with minimal means in locations and recurring motifs.
Most of the action takes place in a therapy center where Linda is a counselor and is counseled, the motel where she has decamped while her water-damaged apartment is — or isn’t — repaired, and in the claustrophobic confines of her car. Fever dream scenery also spices up the sensory landscape.
Thematic elements in the mix include a large and sometimes mystical hole in her apartment ceiling and a small hole in the stomach of her young daughter, afflicted with a pediatric feeding disorder. Another character, Caroline, is a patient of Linda’s and a mother facing her own struggles with postpartum depression and anxiety (the small but pivotal role is masterfully played by Danielle MacDonald, who, like Byrne, is an Australian actress).
In terms of filmic approach, Bronstein keeps a tight focus on our crazed protagonist, her cool-headed therapist (Conan O’Brien, in fine dramatic fettle), and a rogue character in the motel-bound periphery (A$AP Rocky, also seen in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest). Two critical characters kept off screen but in the sonic margins are her daughter and her military husband (Christian Slater), who is mostly out-of-town but increasingly on her case via phone.
Murphy’s law is working overtime in Bronstein’s narrative, in which one snafu begets the next in sometimes tragic, sometimes comic overload form. One disturbing yet comically operatic sequence hurtles from a particular hysterical situation to another unexpected after-effect, ending up with pet roadkill. It’s a terrible moment, yet also terribly funny. After all, it’s only a movie.
Between Byrne’s gale-force presence here and Jennifer Lawrence’s sharp wild turn in Die, My Love, this has been quite the year for mothers on the verge — and over the verge — of a nervous breakdown at the movies. For many in the parental world, there may be moments of painful recognition along the film’s not-so-merry path. But hints of love and hope remain stubbornly in check throughout, not to mention bolts of dark comedy and the sheer thrill ride of watching Byrne in action. This is what controlled abandon looks and feels like.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is now streaming on Amazon. View trailer here.
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