If I had Legs I’d kick you

Plot

Linda is a mid 40s psychotherapist. Her daughter is currently fighting an illness that requires her to have a feeding tube at night, and her husband is working away from home.

One day a hole appears in the roof of her apartment, which causes a massive flood – and while repairs are going on – she and her daughter must stay in a nearby local motel/hotel.

Sleep deprived from midnight feedings and her belonging in the world, she begins to have what is possibly the worst weeks of her life.

Direction

Written and directed by Mary Bronstein (who also appears as Dr Sprigg). It is based on her own experiences going thru similar experiences.

I loved some of the camera work, especially when it came to how it perceived ‘holes’ – as well as the framing of the character Linda – almost exclusively done in extreme close ups of her face.

Cast/Characters

Rose Byrne plays Linda, and gives her most raw and vulnerable performance. She whole heatedly deserved her Oscar nomination. Her American accent is flawless.

Conan O’Brien plays her therapist, who she confides in throughout the film, but he seems to be apathetic towards her.

A$AP Rocky plays James, a fellow resident of the motel who befriends Linda

Danielle McDonald plays Caroline, one of Linda’s patients going through a new mother hood crisis, and Christian Slater plays Charles, Linda’s husband (who mostly appears via voice-work – not appearing until the final few moments of the film.

Breakdown

It’s somewhat ironic that the two stars of the movie (Byrne and O’Brien) are predominantly known for their comedic abilities, but here they give such dramatic performances. they still do get to have ‘some’ comedic moments – more from Byrne – who has two darkly amusing moments – one is the ‘hamster’ sequence and the other is when she is in line at the chemist, and is screaming at the people working on her house (over the phone) and turns around and instantly changes to all smiles to the receptionist.

Here is a smart narrative decision to not only not show the daughter on screen, but not even give her a name. We hear her throughout the film, and see small portions of her. I thought this was a clever way to keep the focus on Linda, as through the film she is seen to be ‘not’ the best mother, and we needed to continue to want the best for her. Also casting a clearly bulimic young child would have been difficult.

Linda to me seemed like someone who is in control of her own life, and these moments that have occurred to her (her daughters illness, the hole in the roof) are out of her ‘circle of control’ – and she is struggling how to cope with this.

Her relationships around her seem to be negative too, as she shares a work space with her own therapist. His apathy towards her is deep, and he acts as if he almost despises her. He is clearly unimpressed with her as a therapist as she uses alcohol and drugs at nigh to cope with her stress.

She has no one who is genuinely trying to help her, when all she needs and wants is the answers. At the same time, she must contend with a series of her own patients, one who is in lust with her (having dreams about her), and another who is struggling with parenthood, and abandons her child in the consult room! Even her husband is critical of how much she is doing to fix the problems she has no control over.

The character of James becomes the one who seems to care the most of Linda’s daughter in the end, as Linda frequently goes for midnight walks, either around the motel, or back to their apartment. This comes quite soon after Linda’s revelation about her previous pregnancy and how she feels about being a mother.

The final arc, in which Linda ‘seemingly’ gets control back – by taking out her daughters feeding tube (comically overlong) and ten discovering that her husband has returned and fixed the hole. Only for her world to come crumbling back down when he discovers what she’s done (and her daughter still saying she doesn’t want to eat). This ends with an ambiguous moment of Linda and her daughter on the beach.

Overall

Wonderfully lovely film, with a great message about belonging, parenthood with an Oscar worthy performance by Rose Byrne.

Some narrative choices, like leaving the daughter both off screen and un named, make this Linda’s film and we truly sympathise with her plight.

A recommend.

4/5

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