Mother Of Intentions

Rating: 4/10 (17 September 2017)

Try to imagine Darren Aronfski with all his talent, preparing Mother in silence working with great actors, re-polishing the script and without the weight of a huge budget. I'm sure Roman Polanski had pressure from the studio to make concessions here and there but look at Rosemary's Baby and tell me. What concessions? I heard Martin Donovan, the director of Apartment Zero, a few months ago, explaining why he hasn't made an American film in 20 years. It was an explanation I'll never forget. He didn't blame anyone or anything, there was no blame of any kind but a deep and I should say, humble reflection and the fruit of his reflection was expressed, beautifully, in his excitement as he prepares his next film. I remembered his words as I watched Mother! Try to imagine Darren Aronfski with all his talent, giving time for the baby to be totally form and ready to be born. Working with great, new, unknown actors, without pyrotechnics but just the truth within the symbols (if any) - I love Jennifer Lawrence and I would have loved to see her play this role at the time of Winter's Bone - regardless of her youth. I believe that small private dreams/nightmares should be told with a feeling of privacy. Think Roman Polanski himself played the meek tittle character in The Tenant and the journey in Mia Farrow's eyes throughout Rosemary's Baby, Colin Firth's invisibility in Apartment Zero. In Mother there is also a Luis Bunuel touch from The Exterminating Angel but in Bunuel we live the surreal mystery with all our five senses. In Mother, we keep questioning, at a distance. No matter how close you come with the camera. Jennifer Lawrence is lovely but she starts with fear in her eyes and she stays there throughout. Javier Bardem is a sloppy variation of John Cassavetes in Rosemary's Baby. Ed Harris, as usual, superb as the Sidney Blackmer of the situation and Michelle Pfeiffer, who provides the biggest and most welcome surprise in a character clearly based on Ruth Gordon's Minnie in the same Polanski masterpiece. For all of the above I felt, sitting through Mother! A long and irritating experience. Now, I'd like to set a complaint about this, who shall I call?