Rose Byrne stars in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a gripping and darkly funny exploration of modern motherhood, written and directed by Mary Bronstein. The film, which opens in limited release on October 10, 2025, follows a woman whose carefully constructed life begins to collapse under the weight of caregiving, isolation, and emotional strain.
Byrne plays Linda, a therapist trying—and failing—to manage her child’s unexplained illness, a crumbling marriage, a missing patient, and her own deteriorating mental health. Her child remains mostly unseen, but the plastic feeding tube that connects them is ever-present, becoming a haunting symbol of Linda’s emotional and physical exhaustion.
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“Linda is under such duress that she literally can’t see her child clearly,” Bronstein says. “She only sees that she has to pour more formula into the tube.”
The story takes a sharp turn when a minor accident forces Linda and her child into a motel, plunging them into an unfamiliar and unsettling world. From there, Linda’s reality begins to fray. Her therapist—played by Conan O’Brien in his feature film acting debut—decides to end their sessions, adding another layer of abandonment to Linda’s unraveling life.
“What interested me most was attempting to capture the visceral feeling of that desperate mental state where you fear everything is not only falling apart, but that the falling apart is all your fault,” says Bronstein.
Though the story is not autobiographical, Bronstein draws from personal experience. “Everything in it is emotionally true,” she says.
With stark honesty and flashes of surreal humor, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You offers a rare cinematic look at the internal chaos that can accompany motherhood—particularly when caregiving becomes overwhelming and support disappears. It’s a bold and unsettling film that invites viewers to sit with discomfort and reflect on the emotional costs of trying to hold everything together.
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