There are multiple moments in Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” where someone tells Linda (Rose Byrne) to prioritize herself.
It’s something mothers hear often. Linda’s therapist (Conan O’Brien) tells her to try and get a good night’s sleep. Her daughter’s doctor (Bronstein) warns her that before she can worry about her daughter’s health, she has to worry about her own. Linda even falls into this habit herself, telling her own patient Caroline (Danielle Macdonald), a woman who can barely bring herself to get more than three feet away from her newborn baby, to put herself first.
It’s easier said than done, and nobody knows this better than Linda. Her daughter (who remains unnamed and unseen throughout most of the film) is seriously ill, has to use a feeding tube at night, and seems to be inching down the road away from recovery. Her husband (Christian Slater) is away on a weeks-long work trip. To top it all off, there’s a huge hole in the ceiling of her house, insulation leaking out like guts from a gaping wound, forcing her and her daughter into a motel room for weeks on end. And, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to get anyone to fix it. Any of it.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
