Written and Directed by Darren Aronofsky
*** (three stars)
RATED R
O...K....well, I can at least say that I haven't seen anything quite like that before.
Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky's "mother!"--complete with the juxtaposition of the lower case "m" and exclamation point--is a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that seems to only come around every once in a grand while. It is an experience that is unabashedly and unapologetically bonkers, yet one that is indeed purposefully so, ensuring any potential audiences that Aronofsky is not trying to just pull the rug out from under you. There is indeed a framework and storyline here, albeit one that is entirely employed as a metaphor. For what, I have my ideas but I do not wish to fully share them with you so as not to lead you into an interpretation at the expense of your own but to also not diminish whatever impact the film may make upon you. (Basically, if you do see the film and wish to hash it out with me, just let me know!)
Essentially, the bottom line for me is that while the film is being linked to Aronfsky's past efforts like "Requiem For A Dream" (2000) and "Black Swan" (2010) as far as tonality is concerned, "mother!" does not measure nearly as highly in quality or in the overall devastating gut punch and altered senses both of those films delivered. That being said, "mother!" conceptually goes eons beyond both of those films as what begins as a paranoid psychological thriller eventually builds into something that is indeed indescribable--so much so that I am not certain as to precisely what I am going to share with you at this time.
Even so, "mother!" is a unrepentant testament to the necessity of having filmmakers who defiantly utilize the canvas of the silver screen to express themselves artistically, box office receipts be damned. I have to give credit where it is due and to Darren Aronofsky, he unquestionably plowed full speed ahead with only the fuel of his dark, disturbing and delightfully demonic imagination to propel him.
"mother!" stars Jennifer Lawrence in the titular role (she, as with every character in the film, is nameless) as she serves as the second wife of a middle aged poetry writer known only as Him (played to unnerving perfection by Javier Bardem). The couple live within a completely isolated in the woods and fields Victorian mansion, once burned to ashes (along with Him's first wife), but is being fully refurbished solely by mother as Him struggles with a powerful case of Writer's Block, leaving himself distant, inattentive and even dismissive of the devoted mother.
One evening, there is a surprising knock upon the door, revealing the presence of Man (Ed Harris) who proclaims to be a physician and is in need of shelter for the night. To mother's incredulity, HIm allows Man to not only stay for the night but for an extended period during which the two strangers carry one and cajole as if they had been long lost friends. Soon, there is a second knock revealing Man's wife, Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer), filled with dark moods, alcohol, sexual energy and an uncomfortably intrusive nature regarding the intimacies of mother and Him's marriage as well as the contents of Him's writing study, most notably a stunning crystal object that sits upon a bookshelf, which Him is exceedingly protective of.
Man and Woman's invasive presence, of which mother grows increasingly disturbed, especially in light of Him's continuous and unexplained hospitality, leads to bouts of almost crippling paranoia during which mother intakes some strange powder mixed with water in order to settle her gradually unhinged nerves. Soon, Man and Woman's adult sons arrive uninvited (played by Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson) then setting off a chain reaction of events that may prove to unravel mother altogether.
Darren Aronofsky's "mother!" definitely earns its exclamation point as it is indeed a full throttle cinematic experience unlike anything else playing in theaters at this time or perhaps for many, many years. It is as if Aronofsky channeled Edward Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (1962), Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree (1964), Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" (1971), and most of Ken Russell's filmography, and blended them into a cinematic stew, resulting in a work that would be unimaginable if not for the fact that we are able to watch it unfold.
Like Ellen Burstyn in "Requiem For A Dream" and Natalie Portman in "Black Swan," Aronofsky is giving us a front row seat into the theater of the fractured mind complete with a fever nightmare logic that includes a vaginal looking blood stain on the floor that is unable to be fully cleaned, repeated symbolism of broken glass and spilled water, images of a womb inside the deep recesses of the house and a bloody heart flushed down a toilet. Yes, "mother!" is that kind of a movie and I really haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the brazen imagery and set pieces that occur and which are exhibited to increasingly punishing degrees of torment and terror.
Working effectively with Cinematographer Matthew Libatique and the film's absolutely brilliant sound design, Darren Aronofsky effectively repeats the same unsettling slights of hand that made "Black Swan" such a hallucinatory experience. Just as with that film, the camera is place closely to Jennifer Lawrence's head, therefore, we are essentially her "eyes," seeing everything just at the moment the character experiences whatever vision that threatens her psyche. Additionally, the sounds of and around the house itself almost becomes another character or element to mother's splintering mindscape, making the film consistently place itself into varying states of psychological unease and distress.
Jennifer Lawrence impresses once again in a role that does feel more archetypal than anything necessarily "realistic." Remember, this film is utilizing a certain dream logic and so, Lawrence is extremely effective conveying the presence of an individual trapped in a world that is not of her making and those dream like frustrations of people not exiting when ordered, performing actions that you wold never wish and not ever listening to any word you are saying even when screaming your lungs out (reportedly Jennifer Lawrence ruptured her diaphragm while making the film--believe me, I thin I know in which scene this occurred). "mother!" succeeds greatly when tapping into that specialized level of inner anxiety and mental meltdowns.
But, "mother!" is not a re-tread of "Black Swan" as Aronofsky plunges into a narrative that is truly aiming high and truthfully, his ambition is something to be applauded even if it not as successful as he certainly intended it to be (at least for this viewer). For you see, and without providing any spoilers, Aronofsky has peppered his film copiously with religious and Biblical symbols, making "mother!" function as an allegory as well as a frightening ride through the madhouse.
Now again, I will refrain offering up my interpretation of the film in full but I do think that for all of the brutality upon display, and some of it is excruciating, Darren Aronofsky has created a film that is impassioned and believe it or not, supremely humane. In many ways, it feels like the perfect film for 2017 as I do think it does address a certain societal, humanitarian and even spiritual decay at work in the world today as nothing less than the cyclical nature of existence comes into play just as much as issues of marriage, the balance between artists and fans as well as the relationship between the artist and their own work and creative process.
I am wondering if Darren Aronofsky was attempting to craft something that could possibly sit within the same, dark existential cinematic universe as something equally polarizing as Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" (2008) or Terrence Malick's "The Tree Of Life" (2011). Yet, with both of those films, their structures and conceptions were noting less than air-tight whereas with "mother!," the film heads in to an arena of where essentially anything goes (and Lord, does it) and while I could kind of, sort of, see what he may have been devising by film's end, I didn't much care or better yet, I was not as voluminously affected as I am certain Aronofsky was working overtime to achieve.
Darren Aronofsky's "mother!" is a film I guess that I appreciate more than actually like and frankly, it was definitely not something I enjoyed, so to speak. But, as I always say, art should not always make you feel comfortable and I do commend Aronofsky (and especially Jennifer Lawrence's fearless performance) for not taking the easy way at any conceivable point with this film. We really need films like this one. The type of films that can really shake us up, work us over and blast us out of any sense of movie-going complacency where we are not challenged or provoked, even if it is to the point of exasperation, frustration or even anger.
Even with its flaws, "mother!" will undoubtedly provoke you, if not flatten you.
SAVAGE POSTSCRIPT
Without giving anything away, I do wish to send out a bit of a warning to those of you who may be pregnant or are sensitive to certain imagery and themes regarding childbirth and babies. I would recommend you give this film a pass for just that reason. What occurs late in the film is truly horrific. You have been warned as "mother!" is a hard R rated experience.
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