Release Date – 7th November 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 59 minutes, Director – Lynne Ramsay
After moving to an isolated house in Montana and giving birth, Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) finds her mental health and relationship with her partner (Robert Pattinson) starting to spiral.
Die My Love was shown towards the end of this year’s London Film Festival, when tiredness has more than settled in and almost anything shown at 8am isn’t an 8am film. There’s a chance that I was too tired or not tired enough for Lynne Ramsay’s latest, sitting and waiting for the various ideas to come together in the vignettes which set up much of what is to come throughout the film.
We appear to move between moments and times in the relationship of Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson). Moving in to an isolated home in rural Montana the couple are ready for the next stage of their lives together, and to push ahead in their respective careers. For Grace that’s writing, however finding ideas and motivation to write becomes difficult as she struggles with her mental health, especially in the wake of her declining relationship and mental health.
“My brain just seems chopped up” she explains at one point, a phrase mirroring the style and pacing of the film. A slightly dizzying spiral of back and forths which certainly have their effect when leaning into the central performance which are often the standouts of the drama at hand. However, it does mean that the overall flow of the film can struggle. While the choppiness can help connect us to the character it can also put us at a distance from what’s happening on screen, especially in the introductory stages where it feels like a lot is being built up. The later knock-on effect is that the near-2-hour run-time starts to feel lengthy, especially when the scenes and needle drops in the closing stages each feel as if they’re about to bring things to a close.
Perhaps I should have known more about Die My Love before going into it, I went into it pretty much blind. When it strikes and really gets across the mental struggles that Lawrence’s central figure is going through there’s a real effect that gets across the toughness, and a sense of unease, about what’s happening – especially in the state of seclusion that the film takes place in.
Even when observing other characters there appears to be a sense of isolation that hangs over the tone and style of a scene. Something that Ramsay and Lawrence understand and click into place about the feeling of your mind kicking you and making you feel alone. It also comes through in a set of highlight scenes involving Sissy Spacek as Jackson’s mother, Pam – caring for her husband (a very briefly seen Nick Nolte) with dementia. One particular scene involving Nolte and Lawrence stands out amongst the noise of the surroundings and is called back to later on with a continuing effect from the translation of internalised mental pressure experienced by not just Grace but also Pam.
These are such aforementioned scenes which truly strike. Capturing a strain, a sense of isolation and possible fear with nowhere to properly escape or turn to. Would it matter much if the world caught fire or chaos broke out? Such thoughts perhaps make Die My Love worthy of reflection, and the film certainly grows whilst doing so. Beyond the occasionally choppy structure of ideas and vignettes which the film sometimes delves into. Regardless, it certainly seems as if a revisit in a non-festival state is in order.
Striking best when capturing the internal noise and struggle experienced by Lawrence, and pushed by isolation, there are a number of points where Die My Love feels like a lengthy succession of less-focused ideas and vignettes which hold back its biggest potential effects.
Just A Little Bit Random 