Title: Mother!
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brian Gleeson
Rating: 18
Running Time: 2h 1m
Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem star in the visually arresting psychological thriller that will leave your heart pounding and your mind blown. The film also stars Oscar® nominees.
Darren Aronofsky writer and director of Black Swan offers up another psychological thriller in Mother! and much like Black Swan it’s a thriller but it’s also a black comedy of sorts that will confuse, distress and entertain in varying amounts depending on your personal disposition. Whatever you think of it, Mother! is an intense, sometimes brutal, viewing experience.
Anunnamed couple live in a grand, Victorian house,in beautiful tranquil surroundings, but inside the house the atmosphere is different. The wife is given the task of renovating the home, whilst the husband tries to write poems - but he’s got writers block. She is clearly his muse. But there’s something unusual going on. They are host to a number of unusual house guests - much to the wife’s bewilderment.
Jennifer Lawrence's character works on plastering and painting and renovating their house. The husband invites unusual house guests played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer who are intrusive and noisy and invite their two sons to stay played by Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson. The sons argue and one kills the other. The wife’s growing terror at these random and increasingly violent actions are evident as she begins to mentally fall apart.
Mother! Examines the big themes of religion, media and sex. Through his films Aronofsky has plenty to say - a writer and director full of very strong opinions, he divides audiences with his storylines and characters that are anything but normal or mundane. His films are full of intrigue and mystery.
Mother! Is clearly an allegory for something. But what? The wife is pregnant - is the house and the events surrounding it a metaphor for her pregnancy? The husband is a writer and the wife is his muse - is this itself a metaphor for something? When you finally realise what is actually going on it’ll all become very clear, but you may never quite work it out. In the meantime it’s rather confusing and at times unsettlingly violent - all (most) of which is appropriate once the themes become clear.
