“Grace” (Jennifer Lawrence) and boyfriend “Jackson” (Robert Pattinson) arrive at the remote Montana home that used to belong to his uncle. She’s not exactly enamoured of the place but they are so loved up that it is quickly a case of getting down to things on the wooden flooring and making themselves a bairn. Thing is, though, once motherhood beckons “Grace” begins to feel the full effects of their isolation. With “Jackson” at work, often far away, she finds herself bored and captivated by their married and motor-cycle riding neighbour “Karl” (LaKeith Stanfield). After the birth, what appears to be some post-natal trauma sets in and neither her boyfriend nor his mother “Pam” (Sissy Spacek) who has had her own troubled experiences with her now late husband (Nick Nolte) can really get to grips with her increasingly erratic, often sex-obsessed, behaviour. It doesn’t exactly help the situation that “Jackson” has no longer any interest in the sexual nature of their relationship and so a chasm is slowly but definitely developing between the pair. Is anything redeemable for them? Do they care? Do we? This film belongs to a Lawrence who is remarkably free with her performance. She portrays her character effectively, depicting senses of confusion and ennui, sexuality and desire really quite powerfully and in a fashion that is quite potently foiled by the sparing appearances of Spacek. Pattinson, though, is just about as wooden as their picket fence and here I could not quite decide if he was cast because he is not a remotely charismatic actor and because Lynne Ramsay wanted this film to be solely about the character of “Grace”; or whether he was meant to add more weight than he actually does and just isn’t very good. It identifies some elements of mental illness, but there is little context or science for us to grasp the extent to which she might be genuinely ill, or just attention seeking? If the latter, then what might have broken their relationship? It’s a smudgy film. Deliberately, I guess, with some plot lines clear, others blurred and some missing altogether - but I found that emotional ambiguity increasingly uninteresting as the plot unravels to no apparent purpose. Perhaps I just wasn’t on the same wavelength, but I didn’t really get anything from this remarkably soulless story. Sorry.
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