MOTHER! (2017)

9/26/2017 – Mother! (2017) – 4+/10

Huh. Well, that happened. The gist of the movie is certainly not illusive, if anything it bludgeons you in the face. The crux is whether you are onboard with the story being told and the way Aronofsky is telling it. As much as I could see his skill and purpose, I did not care for the film or my movie going experience. It wasn’t that I didn’t get it, I just didn’t like it.

What begins as a stress inducing personal drama that hints at creeping horror is well realized and works. Unfortunately, it sharply evolves into a graphical lecture. The drama was fine while it lasted, but the shift put it on a freight train into crazy town that just wasn’t that interesting.

On its face, it is a strange film. Somewhat in media res, the quiet tale of a wife and her husband in an old house bleeds out into the bizarre as strangers come upon them. Connection to Lawrence’s “Mother” character and her relationship with her husband should be our steadfast rock to keep us from drowning, but the rock is soft and brittle as there is little dynamism or heartfelt bond with the audience. Instead, we consume the creeping dream that is sliding into nightmare, with its unruly logic and timing. The whole grows weary as it amps up the bombasity. The metaphor becomes less of a tickle and more of a strangling meat hook about your throat. 

I really didn’t get into any of the performances. Bardem was a tad milquetoast when there should have been a distinct interplay of warmth and a skulking macabre eeriness about him. Lawrence never seems to really go for it, with a ubiquitous doe-eyed gaze and a helpless aloofness; she mostly just drifts through each scene. All the emotion, and thus the possible connected trepidation, just felt stale and stunted.

I did appreciate what the film wanted to do. Artistically and technically, it performs. I admire the spunk to deliver from page to screen this big budget art house flick, fascinated by Abrahamic myths/stories with a modern conservationist bent. He did not hide behind subtlety, as he rarely does, hoisting himself up to the most pretentious and loud heights that he could and screamed to the heavens. As respectable as his intention was, I didn’t feel it elevated his art. It wasn’t as much misguided conceptually as it was overwrought, conspicuous, inexorable, and irksome. There was no ecstasy in the act and certainly no magic in the measure. Overreached and just wasn't enjoyable. 

SPOILERS BELOW************************************************************

"Mother Earth", the Creator, the overall religious parables/discussion, and the horrors of humanity. I get the metaphor. It was too obvious not to take in, but I never really embraced it. I just didn’t think it really worked.