Sublime turn from Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love
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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Reflecting on artists whose lives were cut short, there's often a conversation about the pressures of fame and the signs of emotional distress that may have gone unnoticed. Do you think we've gotten any better at recognizing and responding to those signs? Do we take care of them enough? I mean, in the Amy Winehouse documentary, which was excellent, I thought that moment where she was about to go sign her record deal and she just got accepted into a rehab facility that she had applied to and chose not to do it and then sang about it. I mean, she might've had a totally different life. So it's just those missed moments. Asif (Kapadia, the director of "Amy") did a great job in that film to highlight the disconnect with her family. And with Jeff, I do believe that that played into it, for sure. I think missed moments at the end where he was really struggling and he didn't have the resources to stop and find help. I think that would have changed the scope of his future, of course. I know he was reaching out to those around him because he needed help. So whether or not that actually affected the moment that he jumped into the river, I think is a separate conversation. He did not commit suicide, obviously, but I think that he needed help and he was surrounded by a music scene that was very fast-paced and he was trying to slow things down. What are you hoping audiences, especially those who may be unfamiliar with Buckley, take away from this story? I'll throw this to a friend of mine, Alison Klayman, who's also a documentary filmmaker. She went to see it at Sundance, and she called me after and one thing that she said stood out to me. She said, "I just want to go make art after watching this film." And to me, that is the best possible gift that Jeff could give to audiences is to go find your own creativity and express it, because that's all he was. What's the story behind the film's title? It is a beautiful line from "Lover, You Should Have Come Over," but also it's a beautiful sentiment about this film that really has gone on forever for me, for the team that worked on it, and for him and his legacy. So that seemed like the right title.
