Bizarre and surrealistic happenings as ordinary, wonderful!

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2019)

Directed by the American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, I wasn't surprised that Mother! (2017) brought so many obscure references and unsettling metaphorical discussions. Actually, when I watched the movie last night I knew absolutely nothing about it, but the first thing I went to research straight away after was who directed it and voila! He is the same director of the cinematic masterpiece Black Swan, winning the Best Actress Oscar in 2011 for the performance of Natalie Portman. Definitely no less important, the director was ahead of Requiem for a Dream, where once again the director shows a mindset that can blow your mind.
The movie starts in a house not-long-time-ago burned in a fire, which Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) has been working to rebuild. The place belongs to Him (Javier Bardem), a once-famous writer that faces a kind of block and hasn't produced anything for a long time. Life went on quietly in the house that is dangerously far from civilization until one day a middle-aged man knocks the door and immediately transforms His life. She clearly didn't want the couple's peace to be broken, but He was more enthusiastic than ever and invited him to spend the night at the house. Later they discover that the man is on the brink of death and is a big fan of the writer, which makes Her desire for the man to leave complicated. Next day was even worse for Her once the wife of the man comes through the front door. No listens to her concerns - she's ignored, insulted, patronised, a prisoner - He allows the couple to stay longer in the house.
To say that things get awkward from here would sound like a misperception on my part. The wife was always around making strange questions and having weird talks with Her. An unrealistic anguish begins to spin in circles and never stops. She get really into this and between feeling the house, literally putting Her hand on the wall and feeling the heart of the place, and taking a strange yellow medication every time She felt dizzy, She tried to keep up a dialogue with Him, who totally ignored Her.
To elevate the strangeness all over again two sons of the man and the wife show up and in the middle of blood and rising the house is turned into a celebration with dozens of people and this is the only time that She abandons completely the passivity that accompanies Her so far, enters the heart and desire of the spectators and screams at the top of her lungs: "GET OUT! ALL OF YOU!". It's soothing! I'd say that He wants and expect more than She can gives all the time, yes, but the fact is He wanted more from other people as well, apparently is not enough for Him to live in a country-side house without any recognition for His work, which is absolutely acceptable. But what is unacceptable is that he uses her love in a sadistic and selfish way turning Her life into a surrealistic nightmare and make all of us accept the bizarre happenings as ordinary.
To summarise, If you get into the analysis It could be an analogy of how we treat Mother Nature, about the environment and its destruction, as the director himself has stated numerous times. It could be suggest a religious metaphor: Is the house Eden? At first it is beautiful and full of life and as humans are abusing, the space becomes a huge bonfire with pain and horror. Is He God and She is Mary? Well, then could be an anti-religion message, once He is a sucker who ruins everything. While She knows She will have a baby right after conception and then She is forced to see Her son killed by terrible humans and be eaten by them - which would be the host - whilst He says they are good and deserve forgiveness. And it all starts to get heavy after the man and his wife break the crystal it is all ruined, there we have the apple. Anyway, this is a movie to be studied as well as Rosemary's baby and Antichrist, plenty of messages that, in the end (no spoilers), makes us wait for Mother! 2. Could it be as impactful as the first?