Time: 114 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Drug use, offensive language, suicide references & mental health themes
Cast:
Rose Byrne as Linda
Conan O’Brien as Linda’s therapist
Danielle Macdonald as Caroline
Christian Slater as Charles
ASAP Rocky as James
Director: Mary Bronstein

I heard a lot of great things about If I Had Legs I’d Kick you, particularly a lot about Rose Byrne’s incredible acting, which has also been receiving a lot of awards attention. Both the performance and the film lived up to all the acclaim.

This movie is about the lead character stuck dealing with a chain of stressful scenarios and events while looking after her sick child, and examines motherhood in such a captivating, empathetic and compelling way. From what I had heard beforehand it wouldn’t be an easy watch and would be stressful, exhausting and with a lot of anxiety, but somehow it was more than I was expecting. The experience was even nightmarish and harrowing and with a lot of feelings of helplessness, isolation and fear. It’s not an easy watch, but I was riveted from beginning to end.

The acclaim for Rose Byrne’s career best and shattering performance was certainly deserved.  Byrne is in every scene of this movie and carries this film incredibly well, she is truly phenomenal portraying a mother who is pushed to her absolute limits. The supporting actors are good too, from the likes of Conan O’Brien, A$AP Rocky and Christian Slater. O’Brien and Byrne’s scenes together are particularly some of the highlights of the film.

Mary Bronstein’s direction is amazing. The camerawork is amazing and captures Rose’s face so well and does well at making the whole film feel claustrophobic. It could be even so oppressive and such a sensory assault sometimes, the sound design is incredible and some of the visuals around a particular hole are borderline horror-esque.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is captivating, oppressive, visceral, stressful, greatly directed and with an exceptional performance from Rose Byrne.