Mother! Review

Mother! is not a film that cn be described in just one word or even one cohesive description. It's too shocking and bizarre to be fully conveyed in words. It's too full of competing messages and meta-narratives that to definitively state what it's actually about would be a borderline impossiblity. It has so many twists and gut wrenching surprises that to say anything more about it other than "Go see it" would be doing the potential audience a disservice to their viewing experience. This is a film overflowing with symbolism, allegories and other overlapping stories and is likely to be a movie experience you'll never have again.



For the record, the story is of Jenner Lawrence's unnamed heroine (Mother) as the much younger wife of an aging poet played by Javier Bardem. Both of them are living in a secluded cottage in the middle of the woods with the Poet looking to reinvigorate his creative juices while Mother fixes up the dilapidated house. Suddenly, people begin to come to their house, starting with a husband and wife duo of obsessed fans of the Poet's earlier work. There's something off about them. They're subtly weird in different ways and it starts to get really uncomfortable when they just won't leave. Then other people start to show up and they too refuse to leave. From that point on, it's one weird thing after another, a lot of really on the nose, some of it unexplained, but it'll give you a lot to talk about once you leave the theater.



Make no mistake: Mother! is not a movie to be enjoyed or watched so much as experienced and analyzed, which, if I were to guess, was writer/director Darren Aronofsky's intent from the beginning. He has poured into it every element of his past filmography- from his love of body horror, to his tendency to make on-the-noes allegories for religion to his preference for oppressed female protagonists into some kind of psychotic, self-aware, knowingly pretentious artistic thesis statement that not only intends to shock you, but also give you a lot to digest. The best description I've heard for this movie in terms of tone and story structure is that it's more like cinematic poetry than any sort of narrative, which I think was intentional given the meta-narrative woven into the film from the beginning.



However, beyond the dozens of deeper meanings and obvious allegories the raw, superficial experience is one of the most intense you'll probably have with a film this decade, at least. It might not be as existentially heart breaking as Requiem for a Dream (but then what is?), but in terms of nail-biting tension, ever-building chaos and supernatural horror Mother! is the best there is. The third act is the stuff of your most nightmarish fever dreams, packed to the brim with horrifying visuals, chaotic violence, dark absurdist satire and capped off with a final shot that I was kind of expecting, but never thought I was actually going to get.



Mother! is a movie that I can't actually believe exists; it's so psychotic and takes so many risks that I'm surprised a studio signed off on it. However, I'm so grateful for the fact that it did get made. In this age where studios are so concerned with pleased the immediate superficial desires of their audience, auteur filmmaking is all but dead and risk taking is frowned upon as some kind of sacrilege, Aronofsky drops in with all the confidence of somebody who didn't just make a film that could mean career suicide and throws Mother! into theaters like something he deviously expects to explode. If you've become bored with the standard crop of Hollywood or if you love movies or if you're just in the mood for a shock: GO. SEE. MOTHER!