If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
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“Everything is under control”
Overview
A nail-biting voyage into the dark heart of motherhood with a career-best performance by Rose Byrne, If I had Legs I'd Kick You is raw and grimly funny. Linda (Byrne) is really going through it: her kid has a mysterious and debilitating illness, her husband is away working on a cruise, her therapist (Conan O'Brien) couldn't care less and the ceiling of her house has just caved in. Wracked with guilt and anxiety, Linda takes her daughter to stay in a seedy motel, self-medicating with wine and experiencing strange, apocalyptic visions. Her daughter's therapist Dr Spring adds to the mounting pressure with insinuations that Linda cannot properly care for the child, and things snowball wildly as she begins to fear she may be losing her mind.
“A thriller of teeth-grinding magnificence centred on Byrne as the indefatigable figure at the centre”
“A howl of maternal desperation spiked with jagged humor”
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You vibrates with a primordial love and respect for its heroine”
Why See This Film
Rose Byrne's turn in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You won her the Golden Globe for Best Actress, the Berlin Silver Bear and a nomination for the 2026 Academy Award- not only does she carry the film, but she executes the kind of high-wire performance that defines an actor's career. Byrne's portrayal of a woman on the brink of collapse is exhausting even to watch, beset by accusations framed in self-care aphorisms, but she maintains a kind of desperate resilience that allows you to root for her even as she assists in destroying her own life. Writer-director Mary Bronstein (who also plays the sweetly sinister Dr Spring) has latched on to something with a deep, uncomfortable vein of truth about parental guilt and made it sing.
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