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Development

The film is an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz's 2012 novel Die, My Love, titled Matate, amor in the original Spanish. In 2022, Martin Scorsese sent the novel to Excellent Cadaver (run by Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrochi) after reading it in his book club with other filmmakers, envisioning an adaptation with Lawrence in the lead role. Scorsese and Lawrence had previously been in discussion in adapting Kate Chopin's 1899 novel, The Awakening, but eventually decided on doing Die My Love together, seeing it as a more challenging role. In November 2022, Lawrence confirmed she would star in the film, which Lynne Ramsay was co-writing with playwright Enda Walsh. Ramsay became involved as director after Lawrence sent her the book. Ramsay was initially going to pass on the project as she had already done similar postpartum themes with We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and offered another project to Lawrence. Lawrence declined the other project, insisting on working on Die My Love together, to which Ramsay eventually agreed when she decided to focus on it being a "bonkers, crazy love story", rather than about postpartum depression.

Her first film since You Were Never Really Here (2017), Ramsay approached Walsh to write the first draft of the script and agreed to write the second and final draft. Alice Birch also took part in co-writing the script. In the script, the location was changed to the United States, whereas in the book it was set in rural France. By April 2024, Ramsay and George Vjestica were writing music for Lawrence to record.

In July 2024, Robert Pattinson was in talks to join the film, produced by Scorsese and Andrea Calderwood alongside the Excellent Cadaver team of Lawrence and Ciarrocchi. Lawrence offered Pattinson the role after another project the two were discussing with each other fell through. In August, LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte joined the cast. The film is a thriller, while Ramsay and Pattinson have also described it as a dark comedy, with Ramsay saying "it's my kind of comedy and love story, so it's going to be dark and fucked-up" and Pattinson calling it "hilarious".

Filming

Filming was initially set for 2023 before being postponed due to the Hollywood strikes. Production began in and around Calgary, Canada, on August 19, 2024, and wrapped on October 16. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey reunited with Ramsay after We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). He shot the film on 35mm and in 1.33:1 Academy ratio, inspired by Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Pattinson related an anecdote about being extremely nervous for a dance sequence and being unable to convince Ramsay and Lawrence to cut or choreograph the scene. He took dancing classes for the role. He later spoke further about the environment on set, specifically dialogue changes: "It is just quite an unusual environment… Some of the stuff we're doing… there's one scene where there were three or four pages of dialogue, and we turn up and Lynne says, 'I think I'm just going to do it with no dialogue.' It's kind of scary, but it's very, very exciting. It makes you feel very alive."

On the experience of dealing with the darker material while being four-and-a-half months pregnant at the beginning of filming, Lawrence said that what her character "[goes] through is the hormonal imbalance that comes from postpartum. [...] I had great hormones! I was feeling great, which is the only way I would be able to dip into this emotion." However, while reading the book, Lawrence spoke of it being hard to separate what she would do differently from Grace, the character, and called it "heartbreaking". She related with the identity crisis her character went through as a mother and that, despite having a "great postpartum with [her] first" child when she read Harwicz's book, she experienced "a really hard postpartum" period following the birth of her second. Lawrence felt that watching the movie in retrospect of experiencing postpartum depression was "really bizarre [...] after feeling like I've been through that forest."

Cinematographer McGarvey employed unconventional techniques during production, including burning lenses and singeing the camera gate to create what Lawrence described as a distinctive "inky look".

Critical response

Die My Love received generally positive reviews from critics following its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, with particular acclaim for Jennifer Lawrence's intense portrayal of postpartum psychosis and Lynne Ramsay's stylistic direction, albeit audience responses were more polarized. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 268 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "A frenzied depiction of a common but oft-ignored experience, Die My Love might be too stylistically mannered to fully connect but gifts Jennifer Lawrence with one of her most vivid roles yet." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on its A+ to F scale.

Many critics singled out Lawrence's performance, which Deadline Hollywood described as deserving of an Academy Award, and Ramsay's direction for praise. Tim Grierson of Screen International declared Lawrence "the match that lights Lynne Ramsay's gripping, slow-burn fifth feature", highlighting its layered examination of mental health and volatile relationships. Nicholas Barber of the BBC wrote that Lawrence "is better than ever".

Rafa Sales Ross of The Playlist called Lawrence the "undeniable propulsive force" of the film, noting her "rare ability to swing from effortless charm... straight into the dark abyss." Stephanie Zacharek of Time raved that it's "the kind of performance you go to the movies for, one that connects so sympathetically with... human suffering that it scares you a little."

Dave Calhoun of Time Out labeled it a "deeply raw and honest film" with a "musical, black-comic, big-hearted spirit that pulls you through the despair." However, Owen Gleiberman of Variety viewed it as "reckless on the surface but overdetermined", critiquing its thesis-like approach to motherhood's burdens. In a review for The Washington Post, Sonia Rao awarded the film 2.5 stars, praising Lawrence as "brilliant" but faulting the lack of postpartum exploration as "baffling at best and exploitative at worst".

Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, comparing Lawrence's performance to Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion and calling the film "a wild and worthwhile ride".

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