A masterpiece of overindulgence

Rating: 2/10 (27 September 2017)

In this Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Pi) written and directed film, Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook) and Javier Bardem (Skyfall, No Country for Old Men) star as Mother and Him, the couple in question. First Man (Ed Harris: Gravity, A Beautiful Mind) and then Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer: Stardust, Scarface), a thinly veiled Adam and Eve, invade their space, then their sons Oldest Son (Domhnall Gleeson: The Revenant, About Time) and Younger Brother (Brian Gleeson: Snow White and the Huntsman, Assassin's Creed), followed by more and more until they are overrun.
Despite excellent acting from Lawrence and Pfieffer, Bardem sadly is less convincing, the film is an exercise in overkill. From the burned heart turning into a crystal (it would really turn to ash that would float away) to the patch of blood shaped like a vagina that refuses to go away, this is a film that wallows in self- indulgence and, despite what some critics may say, lacks originality. Anyone that knows their bible can see the Cain and Abel and the plagues etc. but the allegories and imagery he has taken from the Bible are ruined by deliberate shock tactics, robbing them of any true meaning leaving a film of no substance where nothing really happens. If it was supposed to make me think, I am afraid all it left me with was 'there's 121 minutes of my life I won't get back.'