Jennifer Lawrence’s acting career has slowed down dramatically since her Hunger Games and X-Men days, with her finding a balance between her career and being a mother. During her busiest spell of her career she had a balance of going between a big blockbuster film to a smaller indie film that would be in award consideration. The last couple of years, she is still trying to do that but just with a decreased output. She does afterall already have a Best Actress Academy Award to her name, which she won at the age of 22 for Silver Linings Playbook, when she became the second youngest person to win that award. Coincedetally, it’s her performance in Silver Linings Playbook that I was reminded of during this film.
Die My Love is about Grace (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and her partner Jackson (played by Robert Pattinson) who move into his uncle’s old house, and look to make it into a family home. After Grace gives birth her mental health deteriorates, and anything Jackson does only seems to make it worse.
This film is very heavily focused on Grace, and Lawrence’s performance, which is a fantastic performance. The film’s entirely carried on her back, and I don’t think there’s a single scene without her in. Her performance is captivating, it’s a challenging role that not a lot of actresses could’ve pulled off this well. It certainly feels like a mixture of her performances in Silver Linings Playbook and Mother! in a good way. It’s clear to me after her performances in this, and in Causeway a couple of years ago, she’s on the hunt to catch up with her good friend Emma Stone, and claim a second Oscar win, yet Lawrence hasn’t been nominated for nearly 10 years now. I would say this is her best chance since then, however what works against her is that I don’t see the academy nominating both her and Stone. Lawrence is a stronger performance in my opinion, and more out there performance that Stone’s at least, there is of course a chance they both get nominated, I just don’t think it’s likely.
Robert Pattinson almost feels wasted in this film. Pattinson as an actor is an interesting one, he is actively recognised by the best working directors having worked with Christopher Nolan, The Safdie Brothers, Robert Eggers, as well as about to work with Nolan again, and for Denis Villeneuve with a role in Dune: Part Three. And yet, he’s never had an academy award nomination. Now, granted his role’s in Good Time and The Lighthouse are the best chances he would’ve had and he didn’t there. If I also look ahead The Odyssey is going to be hard to stand out in with so many people in it unless he has a bigger role, Dune: Part Three same thing, The Batman: Part Two will of course be a leading role, but again doesn’t feel like the type of film the Academy generally go for particularly in the acting characters unless it’s truly something special, which is why it’s only the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger and Angela Bassett who have managed to get nominations from a DC or Marvel film. He does have two other films in the pipeline, one a film titled The Drama alongside Zendaya, the other being the more likely to be in the award discussion is titled Here Comes the Flood alongside Denzel Washington, Sean Harris, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Danai Gurira, and directed by Fernando Meirelles (best known for directing City of God). I certainly don’t think he was bad in the film, he’s very good, it’s just not a huge role, he doesn’t have any particular standout moments. He has fantastic chemistry with Lawrence, which again I think helps her case as well.
I also thought the film was really well directed, I thought it was paced perfectly and written really well. Director, Lynne Ramsay has done some unique films with You Were Never Really Here and We Need to Talk About Kevin, I really respect that she likes to take on challenging films with difficult subject matters, and I think she does it really well, when others wouldn’t touch it or know what to do with it.
Overall, I found Die My Love a thoroughly engaging and powerful film with an incredible performance from Jennifer Lawrence. Certainly not an easy watch, but one that I’m glad I didn’t miss out on, especially when it has a smaller cinematic release.
What did you think of Die My Love?
I’ve spent most of the day playing around with the website so it should be looking a lot better, and a lot smoother, any feedback is welcome.
Flooders Films 
Leave a comment