How do you handle it all? Moms are asked this question often – often in timid tones, and hoping for a better answer. What those asking rarely hear is that perhaps those juggling balls are hovering precariously, about to fall to the ground.
It feels like Linda, the overburdened mother, is embodied by a brave and committed Rose Byrne “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” by Mary Bronstein If anyone cared he would freely expand on it. But Linda is not anyone’s priority.
She is definitely not her husband’s priority; A cruise captain, he calls from a distance, checks whether she is taking proper care of their sick child and scolds her freely when she is not. A working physician, he is certainly not the priority of his patients in various stages of crisis.
She is also not a priority for the doctors monitoring her daughter’s illness – the eating disorder is so severe that the child requires a feeding tube. Even the contractor who supposedly fixed that hole in Linda’s ceiling puts him at the bottom of the list.
After understanding all this in the opening scenes, we suddenly understand two bold creative decisions made by Bronstein in his second feature as a director. First: His camera is focused – extremely close – on Bayern’s entire face. It’s like saying, no one else is paying attention to that, but we will definitely pay attention.
Second, and most fundamental: we hear about Linda’s baby but don’t see it. At first it feels uncomfortable, even frustrating. But Bronstein explains it simply: The moment you see a child’s face, your empathy goes right there. In fact, this baby, played by the sweet-voiced Delaney Quinn, isn’t even named. This movie is about Linda, remember?
Thus, it is only Linda’s face – in such intense close-up that we could be inside her pores – that we see for the first time. She’s in a tense meeting with her baby and her doctor, Linda, desperately wants to have the feeding tube removed. The doctor says the girl has to reach her target weight first.
Undoubtedly, the tube will become a physical and emotional bondage – and a symbol of the guilt Linda feels at being unable to resolve this crisis.
Heck, she can’t even arrange for repairs to the house’s broken ditch. Just before the opening credits the ceiling of her bedroom collapses, forcing mother and daughter to live in a dilapidated motel by the beach. This ugly hole, like a feeding tube, will serve as a portal to something much larger and even imaginary.
Arguing with the repairman, Linda screams into the pillow in frustration. One would think that things like damaged property – or a rogue parking attendant who drives Linda crazy – would be small compared to the suffering of a sick child. But for Linda, there’s a mix of big and small. There is no longer any perspective of scale.
Maybe that’s why, barely able to concentrate herself, Linda also manages one of her patients so badly – a new mother who is in full-on, scary postpartum depression.
The only person to whom Linda can vent her anger is her own therapist, played by Conan O’Brien at the beginning of his dramatic acting career. For once, and deliberately, O’Brien is far from the joke – a sour man unable to help Linda out of her growing mess.
Perhaps the only person thinking clearly in the entire film is James, the motel valet, who genuinely likes Linda and tries to help. A$Rocky has easy charisma in the role, but Linda is unable to focus on him or anyone else.
And this includes his child also. Even though her days are dedicated to the girl, shuttling her to appointments and filling that angry tube, we get the feeling that Linda, amid the chaos, has forgotten what her offspring looks like. This is certainly another fundamental reason why Bronstein decided not to show the child’s face.
Bayern’s face is hard to forget, however, as it registers fatigue, frustration, rage and everything in between. The film is a wonderful collaboration between her and writer-director Bronstein, who drew inspiration from her own experiences of motherhood.
It has given Byrne, an actor with a natural appeal in light-hearted films, a chance to display versatility and patience in what is certainly the most difficult dramatic role of his career.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” the A24 release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language, some drug use and bloody images.” Running time: 113 minutes. Three out of four stars.
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