Review: "mother!" Doesn't Like You, and You Won't Like Her Either (SPOILERS!)

Jennifer Lawrence

In press interviews, director Darren Aronofsky said of his latest movie mother! that it would be shocking that people wouldn't want to look at him again. It's a brilliant marketing move, and one that done correctly works as well as a viral video from OK Go. Who wouldn't want to see something different in cinema, especially if it comes from the provocateur who previously made drug trips exciting and horrifying, and turned a ballet movie into one of the greatest psychosexual thrillers of the decade? The unfortunate news is that this plan may have backfired, as the film will make people not want to look at Aronofsky ever again. It's a mean, masochistic movie whose themes are buried underneath lazy surrealism and one-note characters who don't have much to do. Mother! is a mess, and a profoundly gross one at that. 

Note: Spoilers Ahead for mother!

It only makes sense that Aronofsky would make his latest film an allegory for the bible. After all, his previous film Noah was a passion project for years before finally appearing as a compelling swords and sandals film that turned one of the bible's most supernatural stories into a domestic drama. While he is far from making cutesy Heaven is for Real-style Christian films, he seems to have become obsessed with exploring these themes more overtly in recent years. While he also claims that mother! is a film influenced by environmentalism and Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree," it's hard to miss the allegories. Even if the initial metaphor is missed when looking at protagonists Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) and Him (Javier Bardem), the answers should soon come through with each passing section.

The film at times feels like it wants to be a contemporary version of Roman Polanski's Repulsion, turning this shanty of a house into a living, breathing creation that has a heart in the walls and pulsates blood in vaginal shapes on the floor. There's no denying that the house takes a beating throughout the film as Him goes from creating a story that his publisher loves (most likely the biblical myth of creation) to experiencing horrific violence both physical and mental, featuring an odd cameo by Kristen Wiig as a homicidal woman who kills people point blank. The third act epitomizes disconcerting cinema in ways that will polarize audiences. Much like in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, Mother is reduced to a pariah brutally bludgeoned and called names for standing up to those who hate her. Even her husband Him asks Mother to forgive those who assault her. Of course, this all hinges on the "controversial" scene being advertised: a baby is murdered and consumed in what is probably a Jesus/Body of Christ metaphor.

But why doesn't it work? One could argue that it's mostly because it is mean-spirited and only progresses to become more toxic against Mother. She is the one being trampled upon almost since minute one when "Adam and Eve" stand-ins (Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer) enter abruptly as fans of Him. The film is obsessed with its own mystery, and chooses to revel in those uncomfortable glances between a loving couple who clearly disagree about house guests. Him wants company. Mother wants some privacy so she could paint the house and potentially start a family. The editing alone is staggering due to how it almost splices in Mother's face as a dissenting force with no deeper purpose. True, the Repulsion technique goes down to the sound design, which is just as disorienting as the dialogue choices, but quickly reveals just how limited Aronofsky's style will benefit this movie. It's all one grand metaphor, and he doesn't really have a character to centralize it that well.

In theory, Mother is the protagonist. The horror is unwanted house guests who slowly begin to abuse her hospitality and the house around her, even once breaking a sink following strict orders not to sit on it. The setting is claustrophobic, and the nondescript people who enter that house become so excrete that it will make the audience retroactively hate the good parts of the movie. Aronofsky is all about the visceral experience here, and he thrives in metaphors that suggests provocation in a deeper and more intellectual way. These unwanted house guests essentially are, depending on your read, either misguided people religiously or environmentally - abusing "Mother Earth" while praising Him as a higher deity. Mother never gets that moment of peace, and Aronofsky's suggestion is that it's supposed to drive audiences insane so that the ending could work. The issue with that? Over-stimulating the senses ends up making one too frustrated to see the "shocking" material as anything but pretentious. Mother wants peace and quiet and has no assertion. As a metaphor in a short film, it would be fine. As the crux of a two hour film, it's insufferable.

This is a frustrating movie because Aronofsky has shown his ability to provoke better in the past. He knows how to use his craft to create deeper emotion. Here, he creates an endurance test in the vein of von Trier's Anti-Christ down to its brutal and misogynistic view of women and general faith. Lawrence probably filmed this in between visits to the psych ward and emergency room due to how much she commits to being assaulted by all senses. It pushes her as an actress, but what really is there that's compelling about watching a woman lose her mind without some deeper change? Mother dies without evolving as a person. Unlike Anti-Christ, there is no real moral other than Aronofsky's perverted views of religion being crass and cynical. Anyone who thought that Noah was offensive for being different best avoid mother! at all costs. Those who love their bible/sanity should also stay away because this is just an exercise in stimulation to annoy. Never is the theme explored well enough as more than sick imagery to warrant most of the intensity.

Mother! is a film with an obvious legacy to come. As the quintessential walkout movie of 2017, it already will inspire immediate vitriol. One can hope that this doesn't fall into the intellectual camp of "You didn't get it" movies where people do video essays explaining mother!'s secret brilliance. Much like Freddy Got Fingered, it's a movie that can't be easily forgotten. Unlike Freddy Got Fingered, its brutal and sometimes incomprehensible assault on the audience isn't part of its charm. One can imagine a 10 year retrospective where Aronofsky talks about how the mother! backlash personally affected him, making him lash out at critics and others. He becomes a martyr because his movie did what he set out to do, which was shock everyone. The only backfire? It was a form of shock known as being pissed off. It will leave visceral reactions for those who make it to the end (or even the hour mark for that matter). The only hope is that the masochistic dynamic between Lawrence and Bardem doesn't mirror Aronofsky and Lawrence's recently public relationship, though even then one has to wonder why anyone would want to date a man who thought that mother! was a good idea. Hopefully the phase of "Lawrenofsky" doesn't last long.

It's a film of wasted potential that becomes doubly depressing because of that. Bardem is one of the modern greats, and he's stuck in the sniveling mode that would make Anton Chigurgh blush. He is effectively awful, but he's also not given much to do with that. Nobody lower in the billing is worth writing about because they barely register as more than plot contrivances to get to the brutal destruction of a house that leaves Him pulling the heart out of Mother. It's a religious allegory, but only for those who hate the bible and think that the world deserves to burn. One could only hope so after seeing this movie, which doesn't have enough personality to make its visceral energy shine. Had the story had an actual plot besides meditative transitions between all of the chaos, then maybe the film would've landed. Instead, Aronofsky is more in love with turning the bible into something so nihilistic that even atheists will praise God's name just to get out of seeing this movie. 

Aronofsky's intentions were probably for the best, and it's always nice to see people exploring religious themes in creative ways. Unfortunately, mother! is not even a passing example of what that could be. It may end up being confusing to those without a religious PhD, but it also will confuse those who get the references because it's so cruel and hates every one of its characters. There's no disdain for this view of religion and/or nature. It's all horrible, and society should feel bad for ruining it. In theory, this is fine as a theme. However, it gets blurred into the idea that it needs to be too provocative to make its point clear. It isn't the most perverted view of religion, but it's the most destructive one mentally. This isn't a test of faith beyond questioning the value of sitting in the lobby for two hours while listening to the TVs play My Little Pony: The Movie commercials nonstop. It's slightly more tolerable and will restore your faith in the idea that Lawrence and Bardem shouldn't have their Oscars revoked. This is a bad movie, and one that shows that having too much hubris and not enough common sense inevitably will make your movie impressively bold in how it isolates people. This may read like a compliment to the most arrogant of filmmakers (which Aronofsky seems to be becoming), but it'll explain why this garbage probably will break-up couples with differing opinions. Don't worry. It was for the best.