A metaphorical gut punch

Rating: 6/10 (17 September 2017)

Based on Darren Aronofsky's previous work, I was already anticipating that Mother! would take some hair-pin bends around my suspension of disbelief, but I wasn't expecting it to leave the road entirely, flip 30 times into a ravine and explode. This is a roller-coaster track through a director's ideological stream of consciousness and you're either in for the ride, or out.
Jennifer Lawrence (unnamed, as are all the characters in the film) plays a dreamy, docile housewife to an acclaimed poetic genius, Javier Bardem, suffering from writer's block. The two inhabit a palatial southern Gothic home in the middle of nowhere, half under re-construction after a previously mentioned fire destroyed it. Interrupting their placid existence arrive two strangers, a man and woman who, despite protestations from the suspicious wife, are invited to stay by the friendly host, who hopes their conversations might inspire him to write. Later, the two stranger's squabbling sons show up and violence ensues. This first act is a microcosm for what happens later on, as more devoted fans intrude on the house to profess their 'faith' for their beloved poet, all the while ignoring the beleaguered wife's protests and gradually tearing her 'paradise' apart.
Mother! is a pessimistic commentary on mankind's propensity for destruction and depending on your political leanings, there are many ways the events that transpire can be interpreted. There's no coherent narrative. This is a mayhem of religious, environmental and socio-political metaphors, an irreverent mardis gras parade through history from man's first transgression in the Garden of Eden to the Hiroshima bomb. The house stands in for mother earth, slave to the whims of a rapacious, capitalistic greed. And most of this happens in the last 30 minutes, where the grotesque violence increases to an over-whelming intensity and the claustrophobic camera work, shot mostly from Lawrence's point of view, makes for a dizzying and disturbing experience. There's no uplifting message to be taken, no silver- lining, just unapologetic nihilism and wanton imagery that punches you in the gut and grins sadistically.
I left the cinema feeling quite shaken, my brain contorted trying to figure out what all the metaphors meant. I felt as though I had been given access to someone else's nightmare. Others were laughing derisively and complaining that it didn't make any sense, failing to grasp the subtext that was so obviously bashing them over the head.
As another reviewer pointed out, it's hard to rate something like this honestly. There are many reasons to dislike it on a content level, but certainly bad film making isn't one of them. This is a tour de force of camera work and cinematography and the acting is top notch. I wouldn't be surprised if Jennifer Lawrence had a mental breakdown after filming this, with all the closeups of her gasping tortured face.
Mother! is kind of like heroin. It left an impression on me that's for sure. But I'm not recommending it.