Die, My Love (2025) – Film Review

Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek
Certificate: 15

By Roger Crow

This psychological drama starts out like it’s going to be one of those art house films where nothing really happens; a domestic kitchen sink drama. And you think, ‘Okay, it’s going to be one of those movies,’ but then it’s so much more.

Director Lynne Ramsay co-wrote the screenplay with Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, and it’s based on the 2012 novel by Ariana Harwicz.

Jennifer Lawrence is Grace, a young mother in rural Montana who has postpartum depression, which unravels her marriage to husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson)… and her grip on reality.

Grace and Jackson are a star-cross’d couple who are madly in love with each other, and have sex at every available opportunity. And before you know it they’ve got a baby, and then Jackson is away doing jobs while Grace is sat around the house looking after the baby… and slowly going a bit nuts. The fact Jackson brings a yappy little dog home one day doesn’t help matters.

“Fearless”

It’s a fascinating film, not least because Lawrence’s central performance is absolutely fascinating. The camera doesn’t just love her, it wants to have a passionate affair with her. There’s not a single shot where you sigh: ‘Oh, it’s Jen Law again!’.

Conversely there’s Robert Pattinson. No fault of his own, but when he was in Mickey 17, which was one of the biggest disappointments of last year, the guy annoyed me so much in multiple versions of the same character that some of that influence carried over into this movie.

As a side note, I recently watched Carrie, the classic 1976 Stephen King-inspired, Brian De Palma-directed horror masterpiece, which I hadn’t seen since 1983. The central performance by Sissy Spacek in that film is magnificent. And in some ways it’s reminiscent of Lawrence in this. Spacek as a young woman was a very different character, but it was that kind of fearless performance where she just gave everything. She went from being this frail, protected, naive young woman who had to endure the horrors of schoolroom bullying; blossomed into the queen of the prom, and then turned into a horror icon in that incredible third act. So it is weird seeing Spacek one day as a young woman, and then flashing forward 50 years.

“Mesmerising”

It’s also good to see Nick Nolte in Die, My Love, who is extraordinary; the relationship between Nolte’s Harry and Grace is quite touching.

The excellent photography is by Seamus McGarvey, who is one of the best cinematographers in the business, and it’s fascinating to see this after it went down a storm at Cannes in May 2025. At 119 minutes, it certainly won’t outstay its welcome as it’s mesmerising for the duration

Die, My Love is not for the faint-hearted. It is intense in almost every sense, but it is easy to see why reviews have been so glowing: Lawrence is a genuine force of nature. Packed with memorable imagery, the film is also deliberately fragmented, which makes for gripping drama, keeping the viewer slightly off-balance, never entirely sure what is happening.

images: Kimberley French

Roger Crow( Writer )

Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast

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