If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.  I was really excited for this because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year but I found it absolutely exhausting to watch.  Linda (Rose Byrne) is a therapist dealing with her daughter's mysterious illness, which requires the use of a feeding tube, and the collapse of the ceiling in her apartment, caused by a broken water pipe (both of which are symbolized by a tunnel through which she travels during hallucinations).  Her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away on a two-month work trip and, not only does he provide very little support, he chastises her for her inability to cope with their daughter and the repairs in their apartment.  Her therapist (Conan O'Brien) is very cold and distant and becomes exasperated with her escalating erratic behavior.  Her daughter's doctor (Mary Bronstein) takes great pains to reassure her that she is not to blame for her daughter's condition but is extremely judgmental about her daughter's lack of progress.  Her client (Danielle Macdonald), who is suffering from postpartum depression, abandons her baby in her office and this mirrors her own anxieties about being a mother.  She finds release with a neighbor (A$AP Rocky) who enables her drug use but eventually seeks another form of release.  This has a very important message about the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers and the lack of support available to them when things become overwhelming but it is definitely difficult to sit through because the camera work and sound design mimic what it feels like to experience a full psychotic breakdown.  I also had very mixed emotions because the audience is clearly meant to sympathize with Linda but I found her to be a very unsympathetic character (this is probably the point).  Byrne gives a bravura performance (she won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival this year) and I was also impressed with O'Brien in a more dramatic role.  This is the kind of movie that I think I should like more than I actually do but I wouldn't recommend it.