If I Had Legs I’d Kick You follows working mother Linda who finds herself having a really bad–and unfortunate–few weeks. It starts as she has to move her daughter, who has been struggling with a health issue, out of their apartment due to a large leak. The two wind up in a hotel and, with Linda’s husband “stuck” on a work trip, Linda must balance her therapy appointments, her daughter’s health needs and taking care of herself, even as weird people and even weirder things happen to her.
The film does lots of interesting things with its storytelling to help it stand out. For one, the sounds are constantly irritating on purpose as we get subjected to this almost unbearable soundscape of beeps, monitor noises that Linda uses to keep her daughter safe, traffic, the flicker of ugly lights and many more things contribute to a intolerable soundscape. The music also contributes to that. The score reflects Linda’s uneasy situation, using unmusical instruments but rather loud synths whose notes clash aganist one another. The camera also stays on Linda almost the whole film, making our perspective very much hers. We understand why she is spiralling so much against the many pressures the story presents her. Often, we simply watch her try to emotionally deal with what’s going on through the use of longer takes.
This naturally leads into what makes the movie work so well and that is Rose Byrne’s performance as Linda. She carries so many emotional rollercoaster moments from depressed mom, to angry pedestrian, to caring parent and everywhere in between. She lets us into her world and takes us on the journey of what motherhood may feel like at its most taxing. The film also takes a surreal approach using its unconventional music to get us introspection into Linda’s subconscious, where we get even more insight into her psyche and what she deals with as the mom who tries to do it all.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is playing at TIFF ’25. For more information, click here.
