Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You offers a stressful, dramatic and emotional cinematic experience with a standout performance from Rose Byrne.
Byrne is at her best in the drama, perfectly portraying a mother’s anguish and willingness to do anything for the sake of her sanity as she cares for her child (Delaney Quinn). Throughout the film, Linda (Byrne) is faced with numerous challenges in her career, home and marriage as she confronts the psychological toll of caregiving.
For her dynamic performance in the film, Byrne earned a 2026 Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
“I can’t believe it. I feel like I’ve snuck into the back of the bus. I can’t believe we got in this extraordinary group of women,” she told The Hollywood Reporter of the nomination in January. “And, you know, this movie’s so small, it’s so surreal, and means so much. This movie’s so incredible and special and a true artistic expression, it’s just wild.”
Keep scrolling for a full recap of the film.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You tells the story of Linda (Byrne), a psychotherapist and caregiver to her young daughter, who suffers from a pediatric feeding disorder. The little girl attends a day hospital program and wears a feeding tube at home at night. In one of the most unique aspects of the film, the girl’s face is not shown on camera. Viewers simply hear her dialogue with Byrne throughout.
Linda and her daughter are forced to stay at a hotel after the ceiling of their home collapses and needs repairs. The working mom experiences sleep deprivation after being hyperfocused on the sound of her daughter’s feeding tube, resorting to marijuana smoking and drinking at night to cope. She befriends motel superintendent James (ASAP Rocky) and makes a habit of leaving her daughter in the motel room alone.
Elsewhere, Linda is shamed by one of her daughter’s doctors for missing family therapy sessions, and there’s a threat to decrease her daughter’s level of care if she doesn’t meet specific weight goals. A client abandons a baby at Linda’s office, further agitating her when she’s already stressed out and hanging on by a thread. To make matters worse, Linda’s contractor suddenly abandons the job at her home.
To get away from all the noise, Linda leaves her daughter in the motel room and brings James to her home to assess the still-damaged ceiling. James ends up falling through the floor and breaking his leg. As he cries out in agony, Linda calls an ambulance before abandoning him.
Linda is told by her daughter’s doctor that she didn’t meet the weight requirements to have her feeding tube removed. She takes it upon herself to remove the tube while her daughter is sleeping and leaves her daughter in the motel room alone to once again visit her home.
At her home, Linda is shockingly confronted by her husband, Charles (Christian Slater), who has returned from a work trip and had the hole in the ceiling repaired. Charles finds out Linda has left their daughter in the motel room alone. They return to the motel to find James in the room with their daughter. He explains that the little girl was panicking and looking for her mom, so he decided to come in and comfort her.
How Does ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ End?Charles is distraught over Linda’s recklessness and is shocked to find that their daughter’s feeding tube was removed. Linda runs onto the beach to get away from the noise, attempting to submerge herself in the ocean. Knocked back by strong waves, Linda returns to shore. She falls asleep and wakes up to find her daughter beside her, inspiring her to make a promise to be a better mother and person overall. It’s then that viewers see the little girl’s face for the first time as she smiles.
Who Is in the ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Cast?In addition to Byrne, Slater, ASAP Rocky and Quinn, Conan O’Brien appears in the film as Linda’s therapist and colleague, while Danielle Macdonald portrays Caroline, one of Linda’s patients. Ivy Wolk plays motel clerk Diana. Bronstein also makes an appearance as Dr. Spring. Daniel Zolghadri plays Stephen, and Ella Beatty plays Kate, two of Linda’s other patients.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earned a 92 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer from critics and 79 percent on fans’ Popcornmeter.
“Byrne refuses to sand down Linda’s harsher edges, yet she reveals the raw terror beneath the fury,” said one critic from the Irish Times. “The result is a bruising character study that challenges the audience to sift genuine catastrophe from psychic projection.”
A critic from The Daily Telegraph penned, “Byrne and Bronstein are a dream team: by zeroing in so expressively on the all-consuming anxieties of a mother, their film becomes strangely relatable to anyone who’s ever had one – not just been one.”
“Bronstein is brilliant at conveying mounting panic and a terrible, all-consuming sadness,” a critic from The Guardian wrote.
