Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love brings Ariana Harwicz’s novel to the screen with an unsentimental tone. The story follows Grace, played by Jennifer Lawrence, who moves with her partner Jackson, played by Robert Pattinson. It’s an isolated house in the countryside where she plans to write, and a child arrives soon after, yet instead of settling into the new life her sense of self begins to split. Ramsay’s director’s statement notes her interest in the loaded dramas woven into everyday life and the ways in which identity can take a hit under pressure, and so, Grace becomes the focus of that idea. Domestic strain, Jackson’s repeated absence, and her own internal turmoil drive the story’s progression.
The supporting cast builds the world around her, cue steady Sissy Spacek and LaKeith Stanfield who adds an emotional thread that unsettles Grace’s loyalties; and this ensemble comes together to expand the film’s emotional terrain without pulling attention away from Grace’s unravelling. Seamus McGarvey’s cinematography removes any trace of rural calm, it’s not an idyll. Instead, the house and surrounding landscape are shot with a compressed, intrusive quality, turning open space into something more oppressive and stressful, and this visual approach plays into Ramsay’s psychological rupture.
At 118 minutes, Die My Love maintains a tight grip on its themes, from the volatility of attachment to the strain of domestic life and the thin boundary between devotion and self-erasure–it marks an uncompromising return for Ramsay.
The film’s creative weight is clear, with a screenplay by Ramsay, Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, and producers Andrea Calderwood, Jennifer Lawrence, Justine Ciarrocchi, Martin Scorsese and Black Label Media. Its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and its $24 million acquisition by MUBI underline the scale of the project. The film is now in cinemas, having opened in the UK, Ireland and the US earlier this month.
For further information Mubi.com.
