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Mary Bronstein’s psychological comedy-drama, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, was released in the United States by A24 on October 10, 2025. The film features an ensemble cast led by Rose Byrne, who won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for her portrayal of Linda. The main cast also includes Conan O’Brien, Christian Slater, Danielle Macdonald, and A$AP Rocky.
The story revolves around Linda, a therapist whose life falls apart because of extreme stress. She has to deal with an unsupportive, mostly absent husband and take care of her daughter, who has an unknown food allergy that requires tube feeding. When a flood crisis forces Linda and her daughter to move to a shabby motel, her deteriorating mental state is mirrored by the physical chaos surrounding her.
She meets James (A$AP Rocky), the motel manager, who offers a bizarre combination of comfort and bad options, even helping her obtain drugs online. IIf I Had Legs I’d Kick You concludes with Linda's desperate attempts to cope, delivering an intense emotional toll of maternal stress and isolation.
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If I Had Legs I’d Kick You ending explained: Decoding Linda's breakdown and the reality of maternal isolation
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a bold portrayal of the enormous pressure of parenthood, which ends with a deliberately vague as well as incredibly emotional sequence. The film is entirely from the perspective of Linda (Rose Byrne), a therapist whose life collapses both metaphorically and literally.
The final scenes of the film highlight Linda's complete surrender to chaos, showcasing her breakdown as a necessary existential reckoning. Throughout the film, all of her struggles are external: the hole in the ceiling (which grows and becomes strangely 'fleshy'), her judgmental, absent husband (Christian Slater), and her unhelpful therapist (Conan O’Brien).
Linda reaches a breaking point because she has lost all perspective of scale. Her inability to fix her child's illness or manage her domestic issues leads her to seek fleeting relief through drugs obtained from her motel neighbor, which further isolates her. Her biggest challenge is the societal expectation that mothers are naturally skilled at handling tough circumstances.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You visual and plot climax often revolves around the daughter, who is intentionally kept off-screen and only heard as a "whiny, demanding" presence until the very end. The deliberate choice not to show the child's face until the conclusion shifts the focus entirely to Linda's reaction and the interior turmoil she struggles through, emphasizing the impact of the child's needs rather than pity for the child itself.
During the final scenes of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Linda is stripped of her coping mechanisms after a night of drug-induced disassociation and a terrible medical scare with her daughter. She is by herself in the gloomy motel room in her eerie closing scene. This reflection is her ultimate fate, which symbolizes the moment where Linda can no longer maintain the appearance of the competent, natural caregiver she was expected to be.
The disappearance of her patient, Caroline, and the ghostlike presence of her unseen daughter focus on Linda’s constant guilt and disassociation. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You director Mary Bronstein, who drew upon personal experience for the film, clarified that Linda's fate is not healing but confrontation.
She stated that the film addresses the "existential terror" a mother feels when she realizes she simply does not know what to do, challenging the "false bill of sale" that suggests motherhood is instinctual. The director claims that Linda's deterioration was a necessary step, requiring her trauma to "smack her in the face" for her to arrive at the state she is in at the conclusion of the film.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was released on October 10, 2025. Stay tuned for more updates.
