Sublime turn from Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love
Set in rural America, amid a sticky, sweltering heat, it begins as Grace (Lawrence) and her husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) move into his Uncle Frank's old house. Miles from the nearest neighbours, it's run down, left to rot after Frank took his own life.
Jackson's father Harry (Nick Nolte), Frank's brother, seems to be suffering from dementia, while his mother Pam (Sissy Spacek) carries the worries of the world on her shoulders. There's even a loaded gun in the house, one that Harry used to leave by his bedside.
Based on the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz, and adapted by Ramsay, Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, Ramsay doesn't waste any time in letting us sense that Grace is under huge strain. Early on, she leaves a knife right by their baby son as he plays on the porch.
Nothing happens, it's just out of reach, but it's hardly the actions of someone who is thinking straight. 'Everyone goes a little loopy in their first year,' sympathises Pam, genuinely concerned that her daughter-in-law is struggling.
Ramsay plays with ambiguity, placing the audience directly into Grace's increasingly fractured mind. Some sequences go unexplained, such as an appearance by LaKeith Stanfield, who barely has any lines and appears to represent Grace's untapped sexual desire. Suggestions are made that Jackson might be having an affair (she finds condoms in his car glove compartment), but maybe it's all in her head.
Lawrence arguably hasn't taken on something this daring since she made Darren Aronofsky's mother! And she fully grits her teeth here, baring all. Pattinson, although very much in support, is an ideal foil, simmering with anger. 'This place is a hole,' he yells, as their domestic lives begin to splinter and Grace starts to unravel, typified when he brings a yappy dog home that soon gets under her skin.
Spacek does a great deal with the few scenes she has, while Nolte brings his grizzled charisma, one that's been missing from prestige cinema for a long time.
No doubt, Die My Love is also beautifully made, from its raw, infectious sound design to the resonant cinematography from Irish DoP, Seamus McGarvey. Music is also cunningly used, from Eric Clapton's 'Crossroads' to David Bowie's 'Kooks', encapsulating the mood of the piece.
Following on from Ramsay's last film, 2017's vigilante tale You Were Never Really Here, Die My Love feels like a more complete film, rarely taking the obvious or melodramatic path. It would be a harsh Cannes jury that doesn't award this a prize; Lawrence in particular sets the bar high.
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