Spellbinding and highly creative piece of art

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2018)

Darren Aronofsky always turns heads whenever he releases a feature film. I can't believe that a completely original movie can still be made in today's Hollywood, it gives hope for the future generations of directors and producers. Aronofsky came after the contentious epic biblical film "Noah", which took heavy hits from critics, to regroup his efforts and give another stab at his creative nature, only to yet again be questioned by critics.
"Mother!" stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple living in a battered, run down house in the middle of nowhere. Bardem's character is a poet who is struggling with writer's block and is hoping to recover by moving to this old crummy house secluded from society. His wife decided to support him and starts renovating the house room by room, piece by piece. One day, a couple of strangers, Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, knock on the door and they are let in without any second thoughts. From here on chaos slowly starts to ensure in ways that no one would suspect will carry on.
The film starts slow, building up the tension of the main character's relationship, but after a third of the movie, things start to pick up and it is just spellbinding. There is about half an hour of non-stop madness that will leave you speechless, incapable of taking your eyes off the screen.
All of the characters are unnamed, given just their position in the family, such a mother, man or son, leading to the impression of an eerie Garden of Eden setting, where later Lawrence would go on saying that her character is an allegory of Mother Earth and the film depicts the destruction of nature.
The distinct sound editing makes "Mother!" an interesting piece of film. Aronofsky decided to scrap the original soundtrack after seeing a rough-cut without music and instead focused on set-sounds from the landscape.
The filming also offered us a different camerawork approach from the norm involving heavily of close-ups that may leave you dizzy when watching it on a big screen.
"Mother!" is controversial though-provoking film with deep philosophical and biblical undertones that should not be missed. It really is one of those movies where at the end of it you will either love it or hate it.