By Merrick · 3/5
Summary — A knockout Rose Byrne performance and phenomenal sound design elevate a film that's ultimately too relentless for its own good.
Rose Byrne carries this movie on her back and makes it worth watching even when the film itself doesn't quite come together. Her performance as Linda — a therapist and mother buckling under the weight of her daughter's illness, an absent husband, and the literal collapse of her apartment ceiling — is genuinely remarkable. She communicates so much through body language and micro-expressions that you feel the exhaustion radiating off the screen. It's the kind of performance that justifies all the awards buzz.
The sound design deserves its own credit. Every beep from the feeding tube equipment, every drip from the damaged ceiling, every ambient hum in the motel — it all builds this suffocating atmosphere that puts you right inside Linda's headspace. It's one of the more effective uses of sound I've heard recently, and it does a lot of the heavy lifting in making you feel the claustrophobia of her situation.
Where the film loses me is in its relentlessness. Bronstein stacks disaster on top of disaster without much variation in intensity, and by the back half the stress starts to flatten out rather than escalate. The supporting cast — Conan O'Brien as a detached therapist, A$AP Rocky as a well-meaning neighbor — adds interesting texture but never gets enough room to breathe. The ending left me more confused than moved. It's a well-crafted film with a knockout lead performance, but as an overall experience it felt more like an endurance test than something I'd revisit.