Slipknot meets The Seventh Continent

Rating: 2/10 (16 November 2017)

We can all agree that Noah was a fluke in both concept and execution, right? That movie tried to fuse high fantasy bombast and comic-book style heroes with the endlessly chipper Judeo-Christian Old Testament to not quite godly results . Not satisfied with the copious seasonings of Biblical stories in contemporary Hollywood, director Darren Aronofsky set himself up with a divine mission. To bring forth a new sub-category of movie making that would take a relatively prominent character in Judeo-Christian lore and make a movie that would do the character good, and take the story seriously. Like, really seriously. Well not that seriously, since it does feature sentient CGI rock monsters. But then again, it is a story about how systematically annihilating the human race is a pretty neat thing, so a talkative butte might not be the most eye- catching detail. In any case, the big budget boat movie tanked and questions were raised as to where Aronofsky's career would go next. To his credit, the director always was a risk taker, and having a high-concept film go south is something that was bound to happen sooner or later. Well, his new project called Mother! is here. So, how does it fare in comparison with the director's earlier films? The answer?
Not good.
Plot isn't exactly important for this flick, so only the basic premise is enough to get the gist. An unnamed woman (Jennifer Lawrence) is seen renovating a house. Her unnamed European husband (Javier Bardem) occasionally walks through the house sparking odd, vaguely pleasant dialogue between the two. He is an author, and is dealing with a dry creative spell. She is subtly urging him on to create something new. Another unnamed man (Ed Harris) starts appearing in their house and She can't stand him because he is ruining her Feng Shui or something, but her husband is elated to talk to him because his life story is inspiring. She starts seeing weird Hellraiser-style abominations lurking inside the walls of the house, as her sanity begins to slowly unravel. That other guy also has an unnamed wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) who also starts appearing in the house, and yet again She get angry at Her for ruining her Zen, but the husband is happy because he really, really liked Ladyhawke . Keep adding new unnamed characters, and you can more or less understand how Mother! builds its story. In short, it is that simple premise taken to the logical extreme and topped off with an explosive finale.
Mother! 's major themes deal with creation, privacy, environmental and social decay.The creation angle is visible with Bardem's character as he is a writer who creates worlds that endlessly inspire people, and is something of a God figure in the movie. His wife wants to turn her house into a, quote, "paradise ". Paper-thin metaphors serve as character building by making the movie a kind of "best of" retelling of the bible. Bardem is God, Lawrence is both Mother Nature and the Virgin Mary at the same time (a kind of trinity dealio, I'm sure), Adam and Eve appear, Cain and Abel make their contract-mandated appearance, even Big Baby Jesus is here. Shimmy Shimmy Ya!
The movie takes these characters as a backdrop for an inevitable apocalypse that is visually represented as the slow desolation of the LawDem's house. Revelers start showing up at the house as they slowly start pulling a Wiseau by tearing it apart like in that one Slipknot music video where a ton of kids demolish a house. So if you think about it, the movie is a kind of inversion of Hanneke's The Seventh Continent. Where that movie treated the destruction of the middle class home as a misguided attempt at liberation, this one treats the destruction of the house as a form of despoilment and rape. The contents of middle class life thus become symbols of security and balance, life and purity. This also coincides with the theme of identity loss, as this sub-plot can be seen as a real-life parallel to the lead actress' life who was a victim of privacy breach. As hurtful and shocking that experience must have been, the crude and under- cooked way it was served in this movie generates little empathy to the actual plight. And there is also the subtext of the poor taking from the rich and ruining the world in the process, but that problem is not addressed in any way. On the technical side, Mother doesn't fare great either. Overblown horror lighting and stupefying editing kill some of the more evocative set-pieces.
The acting is generally tepid, as Lawrence fails to assume any kind of acting style besides constant hyperventilation, Bardem seems half-asleep and poor Ed Harris just seems lost. Mother! can be seen as an astute symbol of where movie.making is right now. Precocious movie-makers want to create the ultimate catch-all movie, a film so epic that it will explain the universe, why the rain falls, how do magnets work and why do puppies get sad. Forget the small stuff, it's all about the big picture, man! But watching a movie like this, one can't but feel that it is a spell of doom without trying to explain the how or the why. Aronofsky injected elements of his own life into the movie, and through them we get a glimpse of contemporary anxieties – one where the fear of violent death is on the same page as mild social discomfort. While this might be a solid cross section of contemporary society, the movie itself has gaps far too wide to simply ignore. And that's without even talking about heavier issues that the movie steps into with little to no regard.
BONUS: If you want a fun little drinking game, watch this movie and take a shot whenever the movie cuts to Jennifer Lawrence's face looking bewildered. Try to make it past the 30 minute mark.