'mother!' Review

In order to analyze this movie, a spoiler discussion is simply necessary. There will be clear spoiler warnings to mark this as a means of forewarning those who've yet to watch mother! or intend on doing so.

[This review was originally written in September 2017 and is now being published to coincide with the digital home media release. For an explanation of this, visit my Fall 2017 Important Update post.] 

mother! sees a couple put to the test when uninvited guests intrude and upset the balance of their humble home. What then follows are two hours of utter insanity that will definitely divide audiences everywhere, something already evident on the internet through Rotten Tomatoes and Cinescore.

Darren Aronofsky wrote and directed the film, leaning towards being an artistic approach with metaphors, symbols, and allegories galore! Which I'm sure was one of reasons general audiences didn't take to it. Aronofsky is known for creating sick, twisted films like Requiem for a Dream or Black Swan, and mother! certainly falls in line with those. I'm trying to tip-toe around specifics because it's easy to unintentionally ruin the film thanks to the cryptic misleading marketing, but Aronofsky certainly succeeded in translating his dark depraved ideas onscreen.

mother! is one of the most unique experiences I've had in a theater this year, because the film lends itself to extensive interpretation. This is a movie that will get you thinking. Once the credits started rolling, I was swiftly approached by another audience member who asked me for my take on what the heck just happened. We quickly started bouncing our ideas back-and-forth and by the time we were done, we both only had an inkling of what Darren Aronofsky was trying to convey. The last time I saw something even remotely close to this would have been last year watching Arrival and Nocturnal Animals, two thought-provoking films released last year that both happened to star Amy Adams. But even with those films, I felt I had a general understanding of what happened when it was over and was merely curious about the deeper meaning or the film structure.

**Spoiler Warning**

However, mother! is an entirely different ordeal altogether. I was able to follow along fairly well till the floor started bleeding. At that point, I realized Aronofsky was expressing his ideas with strange symbolism. I just didn't know what the symbols represented. After reading some interesting internet articles about mother!, I feel that I have a reasonable grasp of a few different interpretations about was going on.

I still have no idea what the yellow medicine was, but I've gathered that Javier Bardem's character represented God, Jennifer Lawrence represented Mother Earth (Nature), and the series of characters causing mayhem in the house represented various stories from the Old Testament including Adam & Eve, Caine & Abel, Noah & the flood, etc. Although, each were conveyed rather haphazardly with a sloppy frenzy. In the moment, these events felt like random chaotic events with absolutely no rhyme or reason. This may be due to the fact the script was written in five days...

For those that don't know, Aronofsky's an atheist. A general theme present throughout mother! seemed to be that God is a neglectful God, and Aronofsky tries to incorporate specific points of reference with biblical allegories. As a Christian, I can't help but disagree with his viewpoint and that goes without saying. I am of the mindset that if Aronofsky's going to explicitly throw this out there, that he should at least find better support than a surface level glimpse through the Bible. Aronofsky constantly alludes to things, but doesn't ever take the time to accentuate his arguments or fully understand what he's referencing. I think if you're going to make the effort to make such a bold claim, you should at least support your viewpoint with more than an ill-interpreted allegory.

An issue I found in the screenplay was that the writing was rather uneven. The environment is an enigma that's able to be perceived differently on a viewer-to-viewer basis. While that is somewhat fascinating, the lack of any clear definition to the events was frustrating since many of the characters come across as half(or even a quarter)-baked and the circumstances seemed scattershot.

On top of that, Aronofsky makes a clear, conscious effort to include grotesque imagery that's disturbing to say the least. The thing that went way too far in my mind was when he showed the crowd kill a baby... That just seemed uncalled for... I totally get that it was meant to symbolize Christ's death at the hands of humanity, but I feel that didn't have to be communicated in such a heavy-handed manner. If it weren't for A Cure for Wellness, that would have been the most disturbing thing I've seen in theaters all year... 

**End of spoilers**

One nice technical touch that I did actually appreciate was how the camera followed Jennifer Lawrence for practically the entire runtime. It rarely lets up, but when it does Lawrence is always nearby, somewhere in frame or it's shot from her perspective. The cinematography from Matthew Libatique conveys a sense of claustrophobia and pits the audience in Lawrence's headspace so they also feel cooped up. The technique is incredibly effective, because the audience feels thrown amidst the chaos with Lawrence when the insanity piles up.

I'm not the biggest Jennifer Lawrence fan, but I appreciate her when she puts forth genuine effort and roll my eyes when she takes a paycheck gig. In this case, I'm ecstatic to report that Lawrence is exceptional as Mother. She has to slowly and steadily transition from a relatively passive, but uncomfortable protagonist to a woman driven mad by the events conspiring around her, and she pulls it off. It's a pity this performance is buried underneath such a troubled film. Opposite Lawrence, Javier Bardem carries a genuine gravitas that makes Him all the more engrossing of a character. The role's quite intriguing as his character exhibits a charming debonair and a foreboding temperament, so it's difficult to determine exactly what makes his character tick. 

Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, along with legions of actors, pop by so the fever dream can regularly accumulate. However, Harris and Pfeiffer leave the largest impression as Man and Woman considering their characters were more developed than the supporting stock faces. 

mother! isn't exactly something I'd recommend someone go see, because I think opinions will widely vary from person-to-person. Aronofsky's vision is absolutely bonkers and certainly didn't line up with what I expected going in. If you're looking for an outright horror thriller, you're not going to find that in mother!. This is an artistic intellectual experience that will get you thinking for sure. Whether you will like that or not is completely dependent on your personal taste. Aronofsky's message was too cynical in my mind, but I can't entirely discredit the film as it was competently-made and the cast put forth proficient performances.

Film Assessment: C-