Lynne Ramsay returns with a hypnotically-constructed journey through one new mother’s mental health crisis, boasting an extraordinary central performance from Jennifer Lawrence.
Based on Ariana Harwicz’s book, the film follows Grace (Lawrence), a writer, who moves into a remote rural home with her partner, Jackson (Robert Pattinson). After the birth of their son, Grace becomes isolated, with Jackson away at work and her only other real interaction being occasional visits with his mother (Sissy Spacek). She begins to slide into a post-partum mental breakdown as her life, creativity and relationships disintegrate around her and she slowly loses her grip on reality.
The film drags you into Grace’s mind, forcing you to experience the world as she does and feel every ounce of emotion. It is an entirely absorbing, visceral experience; tense and unpredictable, it hooks you in and doesn’t let you go. You feel helpless on this journey with Grace, simultaneously trapped in her state of mind but observing her break down. At its centre, the entire film is anchored by Lawrence’s raw, confronting performance. This is the best she has been in years, fully inhabiting the character and reminding us what she can do when given a meaty role to dig into. Grace is layered and her descent is entirely believable, yet Lawrence allows snippets of Grace’s persona to slip through the cracks created by her illness, never losing our investment in the woman we are watching. Pattinson and Spacek deliver terrific support and their relationships feel wrought and real. Even with some of the creative devices deployed in the service of the storytelling, the entire film never loses its sense of authenticity.
Ramsay creates a looseness with her actors, and oftentimes her camera, that make the film’s events feel as though they are really unfolding naturally before you. She masterfully navigates the film’s tone and keeps you on Grace’s side. The film’s cinematography and tightly-focused aspect ratio exacerbate the feeling of claustrophobia. The camera alternately keeps extremely close, increasing our sense of intimacy with the characters, and uses tightly-framed wide shots to capture Grace’s shrinking world. The sound design is also very effective in transporting us into Grace’s state of mind, with spatial audio further enveloping you in her experience. Even the physicality of Lawrence’s performance and the way the camera finds her feels sensory. There is a sense of uneasy realism throughout the film, even as we, the audience, can see where the line between reality and hallucination begins to blur, but Grace cannot distinguish it.
The film starts to slightly lose its grasp in a final act that feels a little overwrought as the film cycles through multiple endings before reaching its climactic and ambiguous final scene, leaving the fate of our characters up to interpretation. It fragments the thread that has been pulling you through the film to that point, but veers around in ways that still maintain your interest. Lawrence and Pattinson never lose you, keeping you with them until the final moments.
Give yourself over to the film and you will be rewarded, although it may seem too impenetrable for some. Ultimately, it is really a piece of art and explores a vital and primal subject whilst featuring one of the best performances of the year.
