While trying to manage her own life and career, a woman on the verge of a breakdown must cope with her daughter’s illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and an unusual relationship with her therapist.

The interestingly titled ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ is an American indie drama from director Mary Bronstein, her first film since 2008’s ‘Yeast’. It is essentially the story of a woman gradually losing her mind as she is confronted with several significant life challenges, with Rose Byrne delivering the best performance of her career at the centre of it all. I’ve seen it described in some quarters as a female driven version of ‘Uncut Gems’, which may be in part as Bronstein’s husband Ronald co-wrote that film with the Safdie Brothers (he is a producer here), and it does ring true to a degree as this is undoubtedly a stressful film to watch – in a good way!

It stars Rose Byrne in the lead role as Linda, a psychotherapist who is at her wits end after a series of unfortunate events layer additional challenges on an already stressful life. As well as caring for her daughter who requires a feeding tube and daily hospital visits, her husband (Christian Slater) is away for an extended period with work and she has to move into a motel when their apartment floods and causes the ceiling to collapse. Trying to juggle all of these challenges while holding down a job and being a mother is almost too much to bear, and it turns every interaction into a potential powderkeg where even minor annoyances (not being served alcohol as it’s past curfew, disagreements with a parking attendant) become drastic mood changing events.

It was more surreal than I expected it to be with Linda often veering into a fever dream like state where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred, and this is compounded as her situation becomes increasingly fraught. It is also a very funny film at times, with the support from Conan O’Brien as an unsympathetic colleague and A$AP Rocky as a motel attendant both driving a lot of the uncomfortable laughs in the film. At its heart though, this is a showcase for Rose Byrne’s utterly raw and gripping central performance where she runs through a whole gamut of emotions. It is undoubtedly the best performance of her career and I actually think she’s possibly a shade better than the equally excellent Jessie Buckley, who will likely pip her to the Oscar this year for her role in ‘Hamnet’.

‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ is a brilliant film with an even better performance about a woman trying to keep moving forward when it feels like everything is coming crashing down around her, and I thought it was terrific.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Mary Bronstein

Starring: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Delaney Quinn, Christian Slater and A$AP Rocky

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt18382850/