Director: Mary Bronstein
Starring: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater, ASAP Rocky
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 113 mins

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a drama film about a psychotherapist who gets stretched to her mental limit. Rose Byrne (nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance) plays Linda, whose daughter has a paediatric feeding disorder where she requires feeding through a tube at night, while her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away for work. Things worsen in the opening scene when Linda is forced to leave her apartment after it gets flooded when the ceiling collapses, and the pair are moved to a shabby motel. And then it doesn’t exactly get easier for Linda when she gets dealt an even worse hand…

This is a claustrophobic and grim work that holds its uneasy-feeling claw over you for its entirety, but it’s a gripping film from director Mary Bronstein with some outstanding performances. Many have drawn comparisons to Uncut Gems (Josh Safdie coincidently gets a producer credit) with how the film resembles a panic attack, but I find the two very different. While Uncut Gems is stress-inducing for how Adam Sandler’s Jewish jeweler constantly digs himself into a deeper hole, Linda isn’t the master of her own fate. At times, it feels like a horror film – particularly one scene where a character peers into the hole in the ceiling, where it almost feels like there’s going to be a jump scare – and there’s even a few chuckles to be had at other moments.

But it took a while for Bronstein’s film to cast its spell on me – the director makes a conscious decision to keep Linda’s daughter off-screen, as if she’s a void. While I understand the creative decision, the film’s first half felt rather jarring in places (almost bordering on being gimmicky) because of how the camera moves and also because some set-up is required before a string of unfortunate events occur. However, when Linda’s life starts to completely unravel in the second half, the film really kicks into gear and I’d settled into the daughter being withheld from view.

Bronstein gets some really terrific performances out of her cast – Rose Byrne is phenomenal as the lady at the end of her tether, really conveying a palpable desperation and call for help. It’s a far superior performance to Jessie Buckley in Hamnet, who I suspect will sadly win the Best Actress Oscar. But it’s not just Byrne’s show – cast-against-type Conan O’Brien is fantastic as Linda’s indifferent and smarmy therapist. After impressing in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, ASAP Rocky also has bags of charisma as James, who works at the motel and tries to bond with Linda. And Mary Bronstein is also brilliant as an unsympathetic doctor who is constantly on Linda’s case.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is ultimately a very mature piece of filmmaking from Bronstein and although I wouldn’t quite go as far as to call it outstanding, the second half in particular is certainly very powerful once the scene is set. With excellent performances, grimy visuals and a thought-provoking story, this is a very memorable film but I’m not sure it would have quite the bracing impact on a repeat viewing.