I’ve been a fan of Australian actress Rose Byrne for a long time. She’s proven her versatility as a performer in numerous ways, and she always surprises me. I’d heard great things about her turn in writer/director Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, for which Byrne won the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival. And now having seen the film, I doubt it’ll be the last trophy she wins for this performance. Bronstein’s film is a masterclass in tone and tension, and none of it would work if it weren’t for the work Rose Byrne is doing. 

Linda (Byrne) is a therapist and the exhausted mother of a young daughter, whose name we never learn and whose face we never see. Her daughter has a health condition that’s never specified. Her husband (Christian Slater) is always away for work, and he’s less than supportive. Linda is forced to move with her daughter to a shabby long-term motel after the ceiling of their apartment caves in. Linda must navigate the caretaking of her sick child, as well as an unexpected and horrific issue that arises at work, and her increasingly difficult relationships with her daughter’s doctor (Mary Bronstein) and her therapist (Conan O’Brien). 

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You plays a lot like a female version of Joker or Falling Down, without all the violence. Everything that happens to this character is so shockingly horrible, it’s a surprise our central character doesn’t get to that point, Almost everyone this character interacts with is unhelpful and inept and even worse, nobody has any sympathy for her. Linda keeps screaming into the void, desperate for someone to hear her and/or help her. And in many ways, that’s so true to life. So many of us trudge through the impossible daily and it often feels like one obstacle after another, and all of that has to feel amplified when you’re a parent and you feel like you’re always letting somebody down. And that escalation of misery is what Mary Bronstein captures so effectively. The film allows our central character to make bad decisions and it’s not judging her for any of it, because she really is doing the best she can considering some insane circumstances. 

Rose Byrne has done it all – she’s proven herself an adept comedienne in projects like Bridesmaids and Spy, and as a serious dramatic performer in FX’s Damages and Apple TV’s Physical. It’s been ages since she’s had the chance to dig into a dramatic role like this and it’s easily the finest performance of her impressive career. You feel for this character and you also understand her choices, even when they’re questionable. The script is definitely sympathetic towards Linda, but even if it weren’t, Byrne is giving every bit of herself to this character and we’d care about her anyway. She’s in literally every scene and we do a lot of very extreme closeups on her expressive face, and there’s nowhere for her to hide. The role feels claustrophobic for the actor because every moment hinges on the work they’re doing. And that would be an incredible challenge for most actors, but Rose Byrne makes it all look effortless.

There are some fascinating surprises to be found in the film’s supporting cast as well. Late night talk show host Conan O’Brien has never acted in a dramatic film before, and it seems like it would be gimmicky to have him in a role like this. He’s absolutely chilling here as the world’s worst therapist. Rapper A$AP Rocky, who to be fair, has acted before, plays James, the superintendent at the motel where Linda is staying. James is the one character who’s treating Linda with any modicum of respect, and this scares her. She keeps pushing him away and this speaks to deeper insecurities of her personality. Danielle McDonald is also quite good here as one of Linda’s clients, a new mother suffering from postpartum depression, who makes a shocking decision that makes Linda’s life even more miserable. 

Mary Bronstein’s filmmaking choices here are also quite impressive. As I was saying, she shoots Byrne in lots of very intrusive, extreme closeups, but she knows when to pull away from that and let the viewer in on more. The film also goes into these somewhat abstract flights of fancy where Linda either daydreams or almost hallucinates. And a lesser filmmaker would let that be foreshadowing for some kind of third act twist where it turns out this has all been in the protagonist’s head. Luckily, that’s not what we’re doing here. Bronstein’s script is constantly surprising and intense throughout. The central metaphor of the hole in the apartment ceiling is a bit obvious, and it’s a point the script keeps making over and over, and everything else in this script is so strong, it hardly matters. And while I could go on and on about the work Rose Byrne is doing, none of it would work without a script like Bronstein’s. The filmmaker has spoken about how this film was a very collaborative process between Byrne and herself, and that’s increasingly evident in the finished product.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is an incredibly tense, uncomfortable and harrowing experience. It depicts an experience so many mothers will easily recognize, but also a film that should be required viewing for fathers. It would make a compelling double feature with last year’s Nightbitch, as both films shine a light on the parts of motherhood that feel insufferable and impossible. And while that all might sound difficult and maybe like Oscar season homework, there’s no way I could possibly overstate how incredible Rose Byrne’s performance is. It’s absolutely the reason to see this film, but it’s not the only reason. It’s exhausting but it’s enlightening, and there’s so much that will ring true for viewers, and this character’s journey will stay in your mind long after you see the film.