#TIFF25: “IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU” REVIEW

By Amanda Gilmore

Writer-Director Mary Bronstein brings us into a mother’s escalating anxieties in this claustrophobic pressure-cooker.

Linda (Rose Byrne) can’t catch a break. Her husband is away on a work trip, leaving her to care for their sick daughter while still working daily as a mental health counsellor. It’s clear from the jump that Linda is struggling with debilitating mental health issues herself. And if the pressures of her daily life weren’t enough, the ceiling of her apartment literally caves in. Thus, forcing Linda and her daughter out of their home and into a motel. This causes her mental health to spiral out of control.

Motherhood has never been depicted quite as honestly, or harshly, as under Bronstein’s meticulous vision. We follow Linda as she suffers through crippling anxieties that come along with being a mother of a sick child. Someone who has no control over the health and well-being of their kin. This lack of control extends to her own life and the apartment she resides in.

Bronstein transports the audience into Linda’s mind. Extreme close-ups create a claustrophobia that parallels the chamber in which Linda is being held captive by her mind. It’s an incredible feat of filmmaking to be able to place your audience in the psyche of the character. This is integral. Without forcing the audience to empathize with Linda, they wouldn’t lock in with her for the 2-hour runtime. Linda makes some questionable decisions—downright wrong ones. But Bronstein has allowed us to feel her agony. 

At the centre is the greatest performance of Byrne’s career. She’s fearless as a woman having the walls around her come crumbling down. Someone drowning and not knowing how to come up for air. It’s desperate, raw, and heartbreaking.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You screens at TIFF:

Fri. Sept 12 at 8:30 PM at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Sat. Sept 13 at 12:00 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto