If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a 2025 American drama film, written and directed by Mary Bronstein (her second directorial feature following a seventeen-year gap). It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and was released in the UK in February 2026.

Linda (Rose Byrne) is stretched to breaking point. She holds down a challenging job as a psychotherapist whilst acting as sole-carer for her young daughter, who has a serious eating disorder that necessitates feeding through a tube and daily hospital attendance. And then her ceiling collapses. This necessitates a (protracted) temporary move to a motel, while her landlord fails to make the necessary repairs. She is not a single-parent, but she might as well be – her husband Charles works as some kind of ship’s captain. His primary role seems to be to shout at Linda over the telephone at regular intervals, adding significantly to her stress.

Having just read that paragraph back, it sounds like I didn’t really like the film, but that is not the case. I enjoyed it. I particularly admired Byrne’s performance, which perfectly demonstrated life on the edge, continually having to respond to the escalating needs of her daughter and her somewhat difficult clients, whilst getting little or no support from her husband or indeed her own therapist, a colleague (Conan O’Brien), who somehow fails to notice her desperation. The only respite comes in the form of drugs and alcohol, supplied with the help of motel superintendent James (A$AP Rocky), who shows Linda some sympathy, although he seems to have ulterior motives.

I think what I needed was some light and shade. The problem with any film about a relentless situation for me is, well, basically, its relentlessness. There seemed to be too much too soon – I wanted time to absorb some of it. For example, there seemed to be some kind of link (probably in Linda’s head) between the hole in the ceiling and the feeding hole in her daughter’s stomach – but I never really worked that one out. But maybe that is just me – I like a slow-burn, and this was definitely a ‘fast-Byrne’. Having said all that, Byrne deserves her best actress nomination, and, in my opinion, she deserves to win the Oscar.

One final issue. The very last shot of the film left me thinking I had misunderstood something – did I now have to re-evaluate everything I had seen from a newly perceived viewpoint? But having now read the Director’s comments in an interview, it seems this was not the case – I just have to question what in my opinion is an utterly bizarre piece of casting (which probably irritated me enough to turn three-and-a-half stars into three rather than four).

Is If I Had Legs I’d Kick You worth seeing? Yes, for sure – it is worth seeing for Rose Byrne’s performance alone. Is it a great film? Unfortunately, not quite.