By Martin Turner
THE landscapes of rural America are shot in frame after striking frame in Die, My Love.
Yet the coffee-table book beauty is no match for our main character, Grace, a true force of nature who devours every scene.
If this is a ‘love’ story, anyone who thought they had a grip on that emotion is in trouble but you get the feeling Scottish director and cinematographer Lynne Ramsay thrives on that conflict.
Throughout she puts the erroneously named Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) through the wringer, or several wringers, whether it’s the hand, the face, or anything she can mangle or smash herself against.
A mesmerising Lawrence is seldom out of shot, and though we see partner Jackson (Robert Pattinson) in several states of exhausted sleep, she seldom rests, let alone slumbers.
It’s the kind of movie where you wish she would, just to give you a minute to compose yourself.
The pair move from New York City to rural Montana after inheriting Jackson’s uncle’s house, a place where Grace might have more time and space for her writing.
Like much else here, the move has a sheen of mystery, the uncle’s apparent suicide left to the kind of hearsay that adds to the bank of family mythology.
Yet almost everyone outside the house has a spectral presence.
A seeming lover, played by LaKeith Stanfield, is often seen in motorcycle gear, his helmet an alien hood in the hazy orbit of Grace’s inner space.
The birth of a child seems to have the gravitational pull of postpartum depression on Grace. There is support from Jackson’s mother, with the striking doyenne of film Sissy Spacek adding immense depth, and cameos from Jackson’s deteriorating father, the great Nick Nolte, and a range of family members.
Yet the rituals of normality ̶ the family gatherings, parties and weddings ̶ are doomed to disappear into the vortex of Grace’s destructive power.
Jackson is not exactly an innocent bystander but often a hapless observer, still trying to provide his version of loving support.
There is no real sense that it’s nearly enough.
The integrity and artistic success of Die, My Love is evident in that Ramsay tells a story about chaos that never devolves into chaos itself.
She is simply too assured and skilled as a director for that.
The film starts and finishes with mesmerising forest fire and ends abruptly but hardly flames out. It burns.
Die, My Love rated MA15+ starts on November 6 at Luna Leederville and Luna on SX.
