POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Mary Bronstein, the emotional hinge of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (a metaphor for the building angst within the protagonist) lays with the character of Linda who can be equated to a hamster. In fact, the writer does dwell on the symbolism of a hamster – an animal that is always on the run without having an ability to stop and pause. In a scene, you see the hyper-active nature of a hamster on full display until it meets its fate – a direct reflection of Linda and what she perceives herself to be. The fractured mind of Linda has an early symbolism in a scene featuring a hole in her ceiling that results in her apartment being flooded. The parallels drawn are of an upper limit of resilience that would eventually be the tipping point of a nervous breakdown for Linda. Her child needs her to be around her, even as Linda has little to no time in pausing – just like a hamster with a fractured psyche similar to the hole in the ceiling.

It is almost ironic on how Linda’s husband Charles (Christian Slater) offers only lip service while being away on a ship for work. It is the kind of mindset that is reflective of the society, wherein husbands have to go and earn while the wives are left to take care of the baby and the house. The concept of sharing the load of parenting remains an untapped territory for Linda, even as she is the victim of her husband’s bickering nags while he tries only superficially to provide her with emotional support. Hence her decision to opt for a motel near the beach is more on the lines of escapism, wherein escapism is a symbol of hope more than anything else. But given the dim setting, Linda is back to square one.

In a scene, you see Linda leaving her sick daughter behind, only to indulge in junk food or opt for drugs to calm her nerves. Here again, drugs act as a symbol of escapism in a rather hopeless world for Linda. The people around her also faintly contribute to her mindset – the motel superintendent James (A$AP Rocky) offers an emotional branch to Linda, while also showcasing his affection for her daughter. But this in-turn impacts the psyche of Linda who goes on to believe that she isn’t a good mother. You also have Carolina (Danielle Macdonald) whose journey of motherhood is eerily similar to that of Linda. You can see that Carolina has been struggling with her baby even as her husband remains aloof in board meetings, so much so that she has to opt for therapy. And oddly in a scene, she reaches her tipping point by abandoning her baby mid-session, only for the problems of Linda to compound.

The fractured emotional core of Linda is a direct impact of her decaying psyche. Not only does she choose to distance herself from her daughter’s doctor – whom she thinks is nagging in a way to imply that she is a bad mother, but there is a dissociation to every character. In a crucial scene, her feverish dream of being pulled into a black hole results in James falling through the hole only to injure himself badly. But despite being witness to James’ fall and his severe limb injury, Linda freezes – only to escape on the pretext of having to take care of her daughter. This remains a reflection of her fractured emotional psyche that doesn’t allow Linda to react as a normal individual. She is so used to escapism that escaping from a crisis becomes her ‘normal reaction’. The same instance you witness in the very next scene wherein Linda chooses to remove the tubes from the stomach of her daughter, well before the doctors could. This, in-turn transcends Linda towards a nervous breakdown, even more compounded with the arrival of her husband and a handicapped James.

The end remains a surreal fever dream for Linda, even as you witness her running towards the ocean. Previously, she had witnessed Caroline do the same – a symbol of washing away the issues of the present and transitioning into a new beginning of sorts. It is the kind of black hole that attracts negativity, even as we witness Linda further struggling and being washed away towards the shore. In many ways, the ocean represents her life – more specifically the problems of her life, with her struggles reflecting her survival of sorts. But when Linda is pushed back to the shore (and it remains unclear on whether this is a dream or her reality), it becomes a sort of a reboot. It must be noted that this is the first time you also get a glimpse of Linda’s daughter – a direct symbol of a restart, even as Linda utters the words on how she will be fine. This may not fully be a happy ending for Linda, but it is a hopeful one wrapped in a screenplay that is edgy with heavy undertones of psychological horror.