HOLLYWOOD—Sometimes you witness a performance in cinema that is so transformative, riveting and captivating that you cannot do anything else, but talk about it. That is how I felt after watching “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” I had been hearing murmurs about actress Rose Byrne’s performance, and I can now give my critique: one of the best of the year.
Byrne does something with her character Linda that makes you as a spectator lock into her as a viewer. Each time she appears on the screen she shines; you gravitate towards her, you feel her pain, you feel her struggle, you empathize with her plight. It is actually gut-wrenching and it definitely sheds light on people who are caretakers for people who are sick. I personally understand this more than others having to be a caretaker for my sick father for nearly 6 months and then stepping into that role again with another parent.
Of course, your plight is nothing like the person who is actually sick. However, people forget the mental stress that taking care of someone who is sick. It is not that easy and its a test each and every day. The audience is invited into that test as we meet Linda (Byrne), who is caring for her daughter who suffers from a feeding disorder. Each night, her daughter must be fed through a gastric feeding tube. It’s critical for Linda’s daughter, who must gain weight to recover.
The film does something that I found different and intriguing at the same time; we never learn Linda’s daughter’s name, and we don’t see her face until the end of the movie as well. We know Linda interacts with her daughter because we hear them interact, but her face is not seen until that final moment. Why is that so powerful? You want to see who this little girl is so you can connect with her, it is done intentionally so when you FINALLY see her face it is worth it.
When the audience first meets Linda, we see her taking care of her daughter in a not-so-great hotel after a ceiling collapse in her home. Her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away as a ship captain, and to deal with her stress, Linda drinks wine and smokes marijuana and eats very bad in the process. Oh, if you think Linda’s world cannot be more stressful, she is a psychotherapist. Yes, she has to listen to other’s people’s troubles all day long, while dealing with her own.
To cope she has meetings with a co-worker portrayed by Conan O’Brien. I was surprised by O’Brien’s performance because he plays a therapist quite well, and he is cold to Linda as it seems he doesn’t fully understand her plight. Linda is like most Americans, but not at the same time. We struggle, we don’t know how to deal with our struggles, but we understand her frustrations, her sadness, her fear, her anger, her despair. Byrne doesn’t overact here, which is very easy to do. She peels back a layer as an actress that I didn’t think she was capable of.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” wowed me in ways that I didn’t expect because I didn’t think I would be so connected to what I was watching unfold on the screen. It might be the fact that I’m literally in a situation similar to Linda’s character where no one gets what you’re doing, but she does and that is comforting. If you were to ask me before watching this movie who was winning the Oscar, it was easy, Jessie Buckley for her work in “Hamnet.”
After watching, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Rose Byrne is the darkest of dark horses, and this seriously could be her award with the acting caliber she gives in this little flick that not many have heard of, starts to increase in viewership.
