Mary Bronstein sees the horror in motherhood

The movie is Bronstein’s long-awaited follow-up to her 2008 debut Yeast, a micro-budget indie movie starring Greta Gerwig about a young woman bouncing between two toxic friendships that helped refresh the male-centric mumblecore scene of the time. After so long away, If I Had Legs… feels like a rare gem from a director with a small, but perfectly formed, filmography that gives a voice to the feelings people, women in particular, are conditioned to keep to themselves.

Bronstein’s lengthy time between movies may speak to the problems female directors face financing uncompromising movies about motherhood, though If I Had Legs… is not alone in its depiction of women pushing back against the expectation of starting a family as a solely life-affirming experience. Nightbitch, American director Marielle Heller’s 2024 adaptation of the Rachel Yoder novel, took a literal approach to the feral feeling of toddler-induced exhaustion by depicting a mother who transformed into a dog at night. 2021’s The Lost Daughter, meanwhile, centers a middle-aged university professor who feels conflicting waves of love and resentment while on holiday with her daughter in Greece. If I Had Legs… is similarly knotty and sympathetic to its main character while unloading the burden she feels onto the viewer, placing them radically in her point of view and asking them to see her as a person, not just a woman with a child.

Bronstein tackles this quandary through a mixture of dramatic tension and gallows humor. Watching the film, it’s easy to sympathize with Linda but If I Had Legs… also heaps emergency on top of misery and demands a reaction by backing viewers into a corner. It manifests into a film that speaks a unique language, blending straight-up drama with elements from horror, surrealism, experimental filmmaking, and dark humour. “I am attempting a tightrope walk,” Bronstein says of the film’s tone.