What is the central theme of the film If I Had Legs I'd Kick You?

The film explores the challenging and often dark aspects of maternal love, portraying it as a potential force that can consume and destroy a mother, leading to desires of escape.

How does the director Mary Bronstein compare her film to Eraserhead?

Mary Bronstein drew inspiration from 'Eraserhead' for its depiction of parental anxiety, specifically focusing on anxieties unique to women as mothers who cannot easily leave their difficult situations.

Does the film If I Had Legs I'd Kick You suggest mothers shouldn't love their children?

No, the film's director Mary Bronstein emphasizes that expressing frustration or anger towards a child does not mean a lack of love, but rather highlights the intense and uncomfortable truths of motherhood.

Home / Arts and Entertainment / Motherhood's Abyss: Love That Devours

Motherhood's Abyss: Love That Devours

11 Feb

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Summary

Film explores maternal love as a destructive force.
Director drew parallels to 'Eraserhead' for anxiety.
Motherhood's struggles are often dismissed as ugly truths.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You presents a stark portrayal of maternal anxiety, likened by its director, Mary Bronstein, to the unsettling atmosphere of 'Eraserhead.' The film centers on a mother, Linda, whose overwhelming love for her ill child becomes a source of her own destruction, making her desire escape. Bronstein highlights this as a unique maternal anxiety, contrasting it with male-centric anxieties where leaving is an option.

The narrative confronts the taboo of a mother's potential resentment and anger towards her child, asserting that such feelings do not negate love. Rose Byrne’s performance as Linda showcases the unraveling of a mother facing societal pressures and the narrow definitions of acceptable maternal behavior. Bronstein herself drew from personal experiences, where the intensity of motherhood led to a profound ego death before she could reclaim her identity as an artist.

Bronstein deliberately keeps the daughter’s illness ambiguous to avoid typical illness narratives. The film’s political challenge lies in its subversion of patriarchal expectations around motherhood, where women are simultaneously revered and dismissed. Despite facing numerous rejections from potential backers fearful of the protagonist's unlikable nature, the filmmakers remained committed, stating their own need to love Linda was paramount.