Tedious, pretentious, and ultimately annoying

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2018)

Apparently director Darren Aronofsky is incapable of producing well-received films without interspersing them with films that fail to please: whilst The Wrester and Requiem for a Dream have been acclaimed by critics, his other titles, such as Noah and Black Swan have only succeeded in aggravating people with their big picture connotations, loosely portrayed through clunky storytelling and often needless CGI.
Mother! was a film I was looking forward to; Bardem and Lawrence headlining an all-star cast, with Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer also featuring - a promising cast, with a further intriguing trailer. However, just as with most of these big budget cast pictures, the film falls flat in its entirety, providing only a laboured view on a pseudo-religiously connotated story.
From the very beginning, the confusion is immediate. A visibly stressed relationship between Bardem and Lawrence is apparent, with the former a struggling (but obviously revered) writer, and the latter painstakingly rebuilding and remodelling Bardem's family home. Approximately every 156 minutes, Lawrence's character seems to be either having a panic attack or drinking a strange yellow concoction, with little to no explanation for either. Upon Ed Harris' introduction, their lives begin to muddle with that of Harris' (and his wife, Pfeiffer).
At this point in the film, the effort to try and continue watching is made even harder by Lawrence's refusal to speak for herself, as well as the overbearing use of audio to paint a deeper picture. This theme is present throughout the whole movie, and yet never lends itself to the element of "horror" that this film was supposed to have.
By halfway through, I was aware of the "deeper meaning" the characters were supposed to be making us aware of, but by this time my investment in the film was so minimal that even trying to enjoy the events spiralling out of control was borderline impossible. Ultimately, Aronovsky only managed to provide a cinematic experience akin to these other films eluding to higher meanings (see: The Fountain), and failing to tell an engaging or enjoyable story at any point in the film.