Even if you are not aware of the biblical context this is an amazing work of art. Aronofsky has lived up to his promise after Black Swan

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2017)

One of the strangest stories I've ever watched on mainstream cinema. How could a story from the bible possibly transform into something like this! The viewers are free to come up with any interpretation of their choice - My interpretation was also very much off (couldn't even tell while watching it for the first time that it's from the bible). Yet watching the sequence of events as they unfold is a deeply unsettling experience. This psychological thriller has the power to stir up one's worst fears, takes exploitation and abuse of another individual to a whole new level.
At some points, Javier Bardem, who plays the husband and a famous poet, seems to be one of the most generous and compassionate beings, caring about others needs much more than their own. But as the movie progresses, one starts to question that same compassion which seems to be border on madness, when he is shown completely oblivious of the feelings of his own wife while caring for others. She pleads with her husband to pay a little attention to her suffering. After her newborn son is killed by an unruly mob, who are actually fans of her husband's writings, her husband says that they must find a way to forgive them all - at which point the viewer becomes convinced that this is truly madness and not compassion anymore. She stares at him in shock and disbelief as he utters these words. When she burns down the entire home, killing all the people in the crowd and badly burning and scarring herself in the process, her husband looks at her lifeless body in a way that suggests that he is thinking what else he can extract from her. Jennifer looks at him, still madly in love, and murmurs there is nothing else left for her to give. Javier peers at her heart, to which she responds "Go ahead". He then digs into her chest and pulls out her heart, which turns into a shining stone in his hand, which he then places on the mantle like a trophy for everyone to see.
The final scene of the movie - where the girl wakes up in the morning to discover her husband isn't beside her - is same as the starting one, just that the main character (Jennifer Lawrence) has been replaced by a new and innocent looking girl, suggesting that she will be the new victim of the same pattern of abuse that Jennifer went through. But the movie ends right there, putting the onus on the viewer.