Strange and bizarre, but thought provoking.

Rating: 8/10 (20 September 2018)

I wasn't very interested in Mother! when it first came out. I remember the trailers never really grabbed my attention, and I hadn't heard much about it. On top of that, the only previous movie I had seen from the director was "Noah", and I didn't like that very much. So, I never saw this movie when it was in theatres. Recently though, I watched a review for the movie, and I realized that a lot of the audience for the movie was torn between loving it and hating it, and that really intrigued me (Some people even hated it so much that they left the theater not even halfway through). I had heard there was an interesting twist at the end, and that the movie wasn't what anyone ever expects, so I finally decide to give it a shot.
The movie revolves around the main character, Mother (Jennifer Lawrence), and her husband (Javier Bardem), who is a famous poet working on his next piece but has a bad case of writer's block. One day a stranger claiming to be a doctor shows up at the couple's home looking for a place to stay, and against Mother's wishes, the husband insists that the stranger stay with them. From here on out, the movie essentially gets stranger and stranger as a series of bizarre events unfolds, each one being even weirder than the last (I'll leave it vague to not spoil too much).
At the surface, the movie may seem completely random and strange, but underneath all that is where a lot of heavy symbolism lies. And actually, a lot it is pretty on the nose if you are willing to pay attention to it. The movie is essentially a retelling of the bible through the eyes of Mother Nature. Mother represents (you guessed it) Mother nature, and her husband represents God. Unfortunately, I had already heard from a friend before seeing the movie that Javier Bardem's character represented God, so I was able to catch on pretty quick when watching it. I think for me though, I really enjoyed going into it with some kind of direction.
Overall, the movie was very interesting from start to finish. There were never any parts where I felt bored and I'm certain that has to do largely with the way it's filmed (the camera is constantly looking directly at Jennifer Lawrence, or over her shoulder), and how each section of the story is depicted. Once you catch on to the story being a re-telling of the bible, you can feel like it's predictable, like you know what's going to happen next, but the director always puts a strange twist on how its represented (albeit even demented, i.e. the death of Christ). The movie has a sort of dreamlike feeling to it in how the events of the story can feel random or sudden, and once learning the director wrote the screenplay in a surge of inspiration over 5 days, I think its clear why that is. That's not to say that the movie feels rushed, incomplete, or shallow, in fact I think it's the very opposite. I think because it was written during a surge of ideas, the movie brings up a LOT of interesting things. It feels like there was a lot that was trying to be said. Whether the director did a good job of that though is kind of left up to the viewer. I definitely was left thinking after the movie had ended.
I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone. I think it takes a certain kind of viewer, and that shows in the over-all reception for the movie. But for those that think they might be interesting in something like this, a movie that doesn't hold your hand and has strong symbolism, I think most will probably love it.