One of the Most Upsetting Movies of the Year Is Also One of the Funniest
On paper, Mary Bronstein’s masterful new film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You sounds incredibly harrowing. It’s about a mother caring for a child with a debilitating illness, who is forced to relocate to a dodgy motel when their apartment’s ceiling caves in, all while her husband is out of town and keeps giving her crap over the phone despite the fact that she's clearly on the cusp of a full-blown mental breakdown. And let's just say you'll never look at hamsters the same way again after seeing it.
But some moviegoers may not be aware that this movie is also incredibly funny.
After playing at Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival, audiences in Toronto just got to see Rose Byrne’s incredible performance as the stressed-as-fuck Linda, which is rightfully garnering awards buzz. If I Had Legs I Could Kick You is deeply upsetting, and downright terrifying at times; there are jump scares and even one particularly disquieting instance of body horror. Yet the same surreality that allows for those thematic detours also give way to moments of brilliant comedy.
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A lot has been written about the fact that the movie contains the feature film acting debut of Conan O’Brien. But while some have called it his first “dramatic” role, it’s really not. O’Brien plays Linda’s therapist who, in yet another absurd twist, turns out to be her office mate as well. And while the role calls for a more subdued, robotic performance than the comedian’s fans might expect, he’s still very funny, responding to Linda’s distress with near-farcical indifference. And he gets a long monologue about executing lab rats that’s objectively hilarious.
But the real star here is obviously Byrne, who is such a gifted performer that she can effortlessly segue from moments of terror, rage and desperation to delivering lines that have been perfectly calibrated to generate huge laughs from audiences. Not every actor would be able to modulate their performance to fit the script’s polar opposite needs while still maintaining a sense of consistency when it comes to the character, but somehow Byrne pulls it off.
The humor is arguably essential to the story being told. The more anxiety-inducing developments tee-up up jokes that get big responses because audiences are looking for a form of release, even if some of the jokes are pretty dark.
This is probably why the movie elicits deep belly-laughs at times, not just just mild chuckles you get from some comedy that doesn’t feel like a two-hour anxiety attack.
