Mother! (2017)
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Mother! Movie Review
Mother! is a 2017 psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Jennifer Lawrence. It is an initially haunting, but eventually frustrating experiment.
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“You never loved me.
You just loved how much I loved you“
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A poet and his wife lead a tranquil existence in a burnt-out house. However, when uninvited guests come barging in, the couple’s life turns chaotic and shocking events unfold. Darren Aronofsky has always excelled at psychological thrillers, but he has never made a movie quite like this one – an insane, ruthless and disorienting story that is alienating for most viewers.
This film received solid reviews from critics, but it was despises by audiences and I can definitely see where people are coming from. I lie somewhere in the middle myself. The first hour is so good that the movie ended up being passable for me in spite of that horrendous ending. Yes, the ending is one of those sequences that were made for shock value and nothing else. It includes a graphic death and a moment where people cannibalize a baby. Needless to say, I was repulsed by it and I found it to be totally unnecessary in the bigger scope of things.
But the first hour of the movie I genuinely enjoyed. This is where Aronofsky operated fully, delivering a potent thriller that is intense and particularly memorable in its confounding and disturbing atmosphere. This first half functioned as a home invasion story, one that took that subgenre to a more extreme territory as we witness dozens of people arriving to the poor woman’s house and threatening to make her go insane.
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Much has been said about the film’s metaphors and imagery. The movie is supposed to represent a religious allegory of creation and eventually of man’s destruction of nature. The protagonist is supposed to represent Mother Earth and the invaders are humans who torment her. While I can definitely see this allegory in the movie, I still think that Aronofsky should have approached this subject differently and with more empathy as the end result is a ruthless, inhumane movie that is more meant to shock viewers instead of making them think.
Jennifer Lawrence is very good in Mother! Her performance is by far the standout one. Her role is a thankless one obviously as the poor girl is a horrible victim, but at least she elevated the character with her excellent acting. Javier Bardem was very well cast in such an unlikable role while the other highlights included Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, both quite creepy in their own right.
The movie was at its best when it focused on these four characters and their interactions while it was at its worst when it opened up the house for more people to come in. It would have been much stronger with a more confined, claustrophobic and limited in characters approach. The cinematography and sound are both excellent and the lack of score was fitting for the disorienting tone of the movie. So much weird shit happens in this movie for better and for worse. While I found some of it grotesque, some of the other imagery I found to be quite interesting. There is no denying the originality of Aronofsky’s vision here even if his execution was problematic to say the least.
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Darren Aronofsky is a director who is quite adept at making psychological thrillers, but Mother! is by far his most deranged effort yet. This movie was solidly praised by critics, but reviled by audiences. I fall somewhere in the middle myself. While the ending was horrific and unnecessary in its repulsive graphic violence, the first hour of the story worked for me. It functioned as a home invasion flick, but one that was more disorienting and extreme in its approach. Jennifer Lawrence did the best that she could with such a thankless role while the film’s sound, cinematography and lack of score are all strong. The religious and environmental allegory is definitely there, but Aronofsky should have approached this subject in a more empathetic and effective manner. At the end of the day, whether you hate or love this movie, you cannot really deny that it is very original.
My Rating – 3
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