mother! - Alienating but fascinating themes

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Aronofsky is an abrasive filmmaker and mother! might be his most inaccessible movie to the majority of the movie going public. Not only because its slow pace and odd camera framing makes for a claustrophobic and uncomfortable film, but because the central conceit of mother! is sure to ruffle some feathers.

Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) works diligently to repair the house her husband Him (Javier Bardem) lost in a fire years ago. She is almost done with the project but Him, a struggling poet, cannot find the words to create his next big piece. Both experience delays in their work after a mysterious couple, Man (Ed Harris) and Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer), show up at their house uninvited. After Him invites them to stay they both begin to wreak havoc to the house.

The house in mother! is an exquisite testament to set design. Feeling like an MC Escher painting in its fabrication it often treads the line between creepy and beautiful throughout the film. It feels like a dizzying maze but the house is never used in a way where knowledge of its layout is important to the enjoyment. In fact it's confusing layout feels necessary to purely capture the film’s mood.

It’s the mood, tone and theme that will keep audiences away from mother! The film is very leisurely paced. Spending its first hour and half with slow paced tension builds into a crescendo of chaos as the events in the house descend into absolute madness that defies reason. It’s only when you realize what Aronofsky is trying to comment on that the events of the film seem thematically resonant, but due to the film’s sequestered setting the ending scenes of the film still fall in the realm of absolute horrific unyielding chaos due to how big and bombastic they are.

This isn’t to say that mother! is a horror film. There are unsettling moments and a particularly gory visual that will turn stomachs, but it isn’t scary. The film is confusing and mysterious, more large scale metaphor/art house film secretly parading as a thriller rather than a straightforward horror film.

To speak of the film’s thematic virtues is to spoil it so I’ll simply say the message is powerful and chilling. The message can also be looked at with multiple interpretations, and each one of them truly captures the film’s rich and sinister outlook of the world. I can’t say much besides there are implications in the film about environmentalism, idolism and the corruption of fame. The film is less a hodge-podge of all these ideas but all of them rolled into one cohesive structure that lends itself to the watcher’s imagination.

Amongst all of this thematic depth are tremendous performances from everyone involved. Jennifer Lawrence is at the top of her game here. Every second of her facial expressions is calculated and to the point. Add onto this that most of the film features her in tight closeups her ability to emote and express needs to be at the top of its game. Javier Bardem is also intense and interesting, harboring some mysterious secret that makes you constantly frightened by him but also deeply connected and charmed by him. He’s never fully villain, but he also could never be a hero. Harris and Pfeiffer are also impressive, albeit their appearance being very short.

All this being said the film is almost too abrasive. It descends into madness a bit too quickly and while the film’s themes explain some of the more odd twists at the end, there is nothing about the actual narrative of the film that gives any logical reason to make you believe or assume that some of the more odd, surreal moments make any sense. This is all weighed down by some really odd and unintentionally funny dialogue peppered throughout the movie that make the film’s final 30 minutes a little more jarring than the film deserves or sets up. Although, Aronofsky was intentionally probably making it as abrasive as it is so this doesn’t feel like a weighty criticism in any way.

Brimming with impressive thematic weight, fantastic performances and twists like something out of Kurt Vonnegut novel, mother! is a beautiful soiree into a haunting and twisted house that quickly asserts itself as being more than just any regular house. It’s an experience that will be enjoyed by many Aronofsky fans, but one that comes with a caution label to any intrepid filmgoer unfamiliar with his work.