mother!

(spoilers!!!)

During an interview with Indiewire, Aronofsky explained the concept of the movie: "Lawrence is Gaia, or Mother Earth, while her house represents the world -- a living, breathing organism being destroyed by its inhabitants. Her husband, known as 'Him' in the film, is God. Out of boredom, he creates Adam and Eve (the couple), who proceed to destroy both Gaia's creation and His study (the Garden of Eden), which holds God's perfect crystal (the apple). Their quarrelling sons are Cain and Abel. They also bring worshipers to praise God, who keep sitting on mother's unsupported sink, and eventually, cause the pipes to burst into a 'Great Flood'. God impregnates mother, who gives birth to the Messiah -- a chaotic sequence followed by a disquieting communion and Revelations."

The problem with Darren Aronofsky and his films is that he is a fantastic director but he is not the greatest writer. He is certainly ambitious but whenever he writes the script himself, his ambition exceeds his talent. Aronofsky's finest movies - Black Swan (nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Director) and The Wrestler (Golden Lion in Venice) are simple stories Aronofsky didn't write himself. It's when Aronofsky writes the scripts, the things get bumpy.
They were with The Fountain that I personally loved but one can certainly see how it's a story that needed more polishing. And unlike with Black Swan and The Wrestler there is no restraint and no withholding the judgment of the characters we are watching where it comes to Requiem for a Dream, an exercise that is an assault on senses, but still an effective one, because it is so rooted in our world and the characters there still feel like real people.

And that is where the problems with mother! begin. The film is simultaneously underwritten and overstuffed. It is underwritten when it comes to characters - the walking, talking metaphors for not just one but many things in this mostly allegorical story. And that would all be fine except there are parts of the the story where Aronofsky clearly wants us and expects us to feel for some of the characters, particularly the titular mother. The problem is you cannot have it both ways - you cannot have a character trapped in the house simply because it fits your metaphor and a character the audience is supposed to care for. How can we care for a pregnant woman who remains in the house, even though the door is right there and the only thing preventing her from saving herself and her baby is the director's goal? It's too disjointed, it's too outlandish, it's too bizarre, to make you care.
Which leaves the movie to be something to admire. When it comes to writing, it certainly isn't. The film is a colossal mess. The biggest problem is that its two halves are so drastically different. Thematically it all fits as biblical metaphor. But it doesn't fit at all when it comes to the structure. It starts with a somewhat sane balance of the traditional story and metaphors but the longer it goes, the less method there is to this madness. When Harris's and Pfeiffer's characters are around we are dealing with something that could easily happen. But as soon as they leave the film veers into completely insane territory where the mother suddenly knows she is pregnant, the guests arrive and start tearing the house down with her husband being delighted by it and then there is even supernatural element thrown in with Lawrence's screams having the power to wreak the floor she is laying on.

What doesn't help is that there are things here that, at least to me after seeing this film once, don't make any sense. I can see why when mother touches the walls she "sees" the house's beating heart that is decaying. But what is up with some sort of an organ being in the toilet? And what was that drink she kept drinking up until she magically knew she was pregnant?
The whole thing made me think if the way Aronofsky wrote that - apparently it took him 5 days for the first draft and the most shocking thing here is that there was actually second draft - was him dropping some acid, looking around the room, noticing the copy of the Bible on the shelf and just writing down whatever came to his mind.

And that would still be fine except the film isn't just him illustrating biblical stories. There is also a commentary here about the writer's ego, the way the artists abuse their muses, the fanatical devotion of the fans AND an analogy to how the humanity treats the environment. It simply is too much. And one of Aronofsky's weaknesses as a writer is that he cannot stay detached, so all of it has a very preachy feel to it. Given that nothing Aronofsky says here is new or particularly interesting it just comes off as him trying to look smart without actually having the intriguing observations to back it up. Add to that the fact that Aronofsky simply cannot stop talking about this movie, explaining it (even though it's really not that hard to understand) and he even says that Bardem's character has similarities to him and it's all just....quite pathetic.
One of the greatest things about Black Swan, which is still my favorite movie of all time, is that it is completely up to the viewer to decide what happens. Because Nina is present in every single scene and we watch everything from her perspective we can never know with certainty what really happened. I even wrote this about the movie and it holds up because there is nothing from another character's perspective that can disprove that. Up until few moments near the end mother! has that going for it too which would at least make it a fun movie to write theories about. But Aronfosky completely slaughters that potential.

First there is the penultimate scene with the crappy make up, even more on the nose metaphors and the fact it's completely unnecessary. where Bardem's character is revealed to be God and the focus shifts from Lawrence's character leaving Bardem's alone. And then there is a repeat of the scene from the beginning with yet another partner of Bardem's waking up, suggesting all of it is a loop. First of all, that scene is apparently (according to imdb trivia) a nod to Crimson Peak - if you are going to feature a nod to something does it really have to be to one to a recent, mediocre flick? Second of all, what is even Aronofsky saying here? Was this whole story some sort of sick game God is playing? And if we are going with Mother Nature metaphor and the whole film shows how destructive people are towards it, why does Aronofsky suggest all of this resets when the nature is destroyed? It just doesn't make much, if any, sense.
As for the film's "shocking content" - the amount of times they showed the close up of that baby was unbearable since I knew what was going to happen. Had I not seen Wind River's flashback it would be the worst thing I've seen in years. At least this was all grotesque, Wind River is painfully real. Also it's a MUCH better movie than...this.

Aronofsky for what he accomplishes here as a director - he manages to stage a war movie inside a house and this is something I have never seen before. The cinematography by Matthew Libatique, who also shot Black Swan, bears striking similarity to that movie with the camera always staying close to our protagonist. And Lawrence's innocent, confused and lost character and the way the actress plays her also brings Portman's Nina to mind.
I'm not a big fan of Lawrence, I find her off screen antics to be largely off putting and she is overrated with all the acclaim she won for American Hustle and Joy. That said, there is no denying she is talented. mother! features her best performance to date. The actress deserves praise for even doing that movie in the first place, one that rightfully upset people, and one where she had to appear in so many difficult scenes.

When you ask an actress of a performance like the one Lawrence delivers here you better have good writing or at least a well thought out idea of what you want your movie to be to back it up. Aronofsky clearly didn't have either of those. But she still gives it her all and is convincing in every second of it even when she is stuck between playing an underwritten character and the character we are supposed to feel for.
Harris and Pfeiffer deliver excellent support and the two Gleeson brothers are very good in their short screen scenes. And then there is Kristen Wiig in memorable and entertaining cameo. Javier Bardem on the other is just dreadful here, completely lost in this movie and overacting at every turn. Still, you cannot really fault any actors here, given what they were working with was so strange.

The movie certainly is unique and unlike anything else this year. Lawrence's performance is up there among the strongest of the year and the sound work as well as the production design in the film is outstanding with the house being, truthfully, better developed character than any of the people we are watching on the screen.
The problem with the film is that it's not even something worthy of all the outrage it provoked and the polarizing reviews it got. Some hailed it as masterpiece, some say it's the worst film of the year. The truth is that mother! falls somewhere in the middle - it's incredibly staged and Lawrence is terrific but the script is just a self-indulging mess. It's just not worthy of all that rage.

It's nowhere near as infuriating as the way Rian Johnson, who was given millions of dollars, so much talent, creative freedom and iconic franchise, treated The Last Jedi. It's nowhere near as enraging as what Warner Bros did with the first feature film about Justice League. It's nowhere near as baffling as some of The Snowman script not being shot. It's nowhere near as offensive as some of the misogynistic content of Kingsman 2, and, as already mentioned, nowhere near as disturbing as Wind River.

It simply is what it is. A mess.

mother! 
(2017, 121 min) 
Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris