Some loved it, some hated it. Here's our verdict on Darren Aronofsky's controversial new feature...
Early this week, Paramount Pictures very unusually released a statement in regard to one of their newest releases:
“They made a movie that was intended to be bold. Everyone wants original filmmaking and everyone celebrates Netflix when they tell a story no one else wants to tell. This is our version. We don’t want all movies to be safe. And it’s okay if some people don’t like it.”
Mother! has to be one of the most controversial films to be made in a very long time. At the premiere, it was simultaneously booed and given a standing ovation by the audience. It has been awarded both 5-star ratings as well as a rare Cinemascore of “F” (fail). The anticipation for its release was hyped up to an incredible level; director Darren Aronofsky forbade anyone to release any information without his careful consideration. Even the trailer gave little away, bar random and frightening snapshots of the film completely out of context. Aronofsky also supposedly wrote the screenplay in a frenetic five-day bout of creativity. And despite a struggle at the box office in its opening weekend, those who have seen it can’t seem to stop talking about it.
Giving away too much detail would spoil it because it needs to be watched without foreknowledge. There is a general storyline that the film lightly follows – like a dream sequence or nightmare. A man (Javier Bardem), and his much younger wife (Jennifer Lawrence) exist together in apparent paradise. She works to repair the beautiful but damaged house they live in, previously destroyed by fire. He is a writer, working on his poetry. But there are cracks in the perfection. He has a classic case of writer’s block, and though she strives to create an idealistic environment for him to thrive in and be inspired by, nothing she does seems to make things any better. There is a knock at the door, and a stranger (Ed Harris) enters. The man welcomes him without thought of what his wife thinks or wants. This stranger is rapidly followed by more characters, his spouse (Michelle Pfeiffer), his two sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson), family-friends and other strangers. After a time, a whole crowd overruns the place. Each new unwelcome addition brings chaos and destruction to the wife’s perfect world, and nobody will listen to her protestations. After a brief interval of respite, mania begins to seep into the story once again, building to a final climax, taking the plot to levels never before visited onscreen.
This is a prophetic vision on biblical terms
Is it horror? Thriller? Drama? Comedy? No... and yes... With something else thrown into the mix; something dark, disturbing and strangely familiar. Something that could be found at the heart of the human psyche. Something that lurks somewhere between love, possession, sacrifice and pain - but what it is, is not exactly clear. There is a bigger meaning behind the setting, the characters and the story, but to get to it you must go through a gut-wrenching, pounding two hours of screen time. To some, it may have seemed a rather strange casting choice to put Lawrence in the main role, but her performance is astounding. The camera stalks her every move with a harsh, voyeuristic quality. Bardem is also incredibly powerful in an excellent portrayal, both tender and yet terrifyingly intimidating. And the supporting cast is one of the strongest and most talented I’ve ever seen.
We live in an age now where we almost have too much choice in visual entertainment, with heavily built up franchises, and reboot after reboot. True originality and artistry are sorely lacking. I’m not talking about the pretentious, arty nonsense you come across every once in a while, I mean the display of a brave, hard-hitting truth that is deeply uncomfortable, difficult to ignore and impossible to forget. Many critics and viewers of mother! have become bogged down in the smaller details of the plot, completely missing the bigger point and, dare I say it, taking it way too literally. The house, the characters and the story in this film are all one long allegory about a much bigger issue. Coyly confirmed by Aronofsky, this is a metaphorical depiction of our world and what is happening to it: climate change, terrorism and greed destroying existence as we know it. This is a prophetic vision on biblical terms. It represents something we understand and already know if we are only brave enough to recognise it.
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