Holy Mother of God! What a weird psychological movie!

Rating: 6/10 (15 May 2018)

Watching this horror movie from director Darren Aronofsky on Mother's Day, is probably not the best thing to do! Without spoiling the movie, too much, it's no comfortable sit popcorn flick. It's more like a nauseating 'Doomsday' want to abort, kind of a film. It's gloomy, disturbing, and highly annoying. However, it's something, you should had expect by now; seeing how Aronofsky's movies has always been hard sit. Still, as dark as his 2000's film 'Requiem of a Dream' & 2008's masterpiece 'The Wrestler', were; it did had an overarching message about hope & some uplifting moments sprinkle throughout the film. This one, not so much. Without spoiling too much of this movie, Aronofsky had turned everything good about believing for better days into a negative. It come across, as very nihilism & way too unpleasant. It will certainly turn off, positive thinkers and sensitive religionist people. If that wasn't enough, the director also, has a pessimistic misanthropy view on humanity as a whole. Focusing way too much on humanity's depravity and abuse of the natural world. Because of that, this movie has barely any redeemable characters. Most of them, are very unlikable. So, it was really hard to care or invest in what happening in the movie. If that wasn't enough, the film is also a miscarriage of sophistical ways to use surrealism metaphors in a dream-like settling. Aronofsky's writing is way too on the nose for it. Not only that, but it's really not that hard to see, where the director was going for, when he dreamt up, this fever nightmare, one night and wrote it in five days. The story of an unnamed woman (Jennifer Lawrence)'s anthropophobia mental state is being tested when uninvited guests kept on, arriving at her house is obvious, a retelling of the Bible told from nature's feminine perspective. Even, having the events set in modern day, was very poor attempt of hiding that. There was nothing really smart, in the way, Aronofsky's metaphorical scarf was trying covering the religious environmental message. I guess, that why, Aronofsky gave up, half way & just expose everything to the masses. At certain parts, the filmmaker even spell it out for you, like hinting at the apocalypse toward the end with a throwaway line of dialogue or having obvious visual tipoffs as the unnamed writer/poet (Javier Bardem) rubbing ink on the forehead of his fans or showing the infamous baby eating scene. Aronofsky is treating his audience members as if they were simpletons who can't interpret, worth anything. Not only that, but Aronofsky couldn't stop his damn mouth, before the movie was released in press interviews. He pretty much spill all the beans about his film, before people saw it. Because of that, there wasn't really anything, too surprising in the flick for people. Anybody that read the bible, knows, how it would end. 'Mother' really does lacks subtlety and nuance. So, it came across, as very predictable for a film built as a mystery. The story doesn't stand out on its own. Despite that, with its mute color choices and low lightning, the movie does a good job on making certain visuals from cinematographer, Matthew Libatique seem haunting. Even the sparing use of CGI from Andrew Weisblum and his crew kinda works for that behalf. All of those filmmaking tools really does made the house, seem really creepy. Another thing that works was the use of close ups. It really gave the feel of anxious and claustrophobic for the viewer. Yet, it's could had been, better used, if Lawrence's character's reaction was a little more emotional driven, than bland confusing stares. It made the film seem more hilarious than scary. To add on that, Aronofsky's misdirection for the over the top, gimmicky, quick paced action really does ruin the slow gothic 'Lovecraftian' fear of the cosmic unknown. It also really desensitized the viewers from feeling, the pain from more ground issues, such as the atrocities that have been done in the name of religion. It was very disconnecting in every way, despite how well-acted, the performers were. No wonder, why this movie nearly bomb at the box office. It felt like absurd Freudian wet dream, too extreme & esoteric for mainstream audiences. While, personally, I cannot recommended seeing this movie. I know, that 'Mother' is indeed, better, suite for art house crowds. However, even with that; overall, the movie is not worth worshipping about. It's a bitch to sit through.