Movie Review: Mother! is brilliant yet bonkers
Jennifer Lawrence has described Mother! as an assault on your senses. She is not wrong.
Billed as a supernatural thriller, it is certainly not for everyone - just like most of Darren Aronofsky's films.
The Oscar-nominated director of Requiem For A Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010) and Noah (2014) plays with your mind yet again with a beautifully shot film that is brilliant yet bonkers.
It is hard to say what Mother! is about without giving anything away, as it is best experienced without foreknowledge and expectations.
Some have speculated that the baffling story, written by Aronofsky, is an allegory of his failed relationship to actress Rachel Weisz.
Others say it is a metaphor for creation and Mother Earth as he is an environmentalist, or that it is a symbol of celebrity culture, creativity, consumerism, May-December romances and motherhood.
However you see it, Mother! definitely earns the title of the most debatable film of the year.
What is that yellowish tonic Lawrence's character - she is unnamed, like all characters in the film - drinks each time she has a panic attack? Why doesn't she step out of the house?
Why is Javier Bardem's poet character so eager to invite strangers home? Are the blood stains and beating heart in the wall pure hallucinations?
Disorienting moments aside, Aronofsky delivers an atmospheric and intense tale.
The brutal and horrific final act will make you cringe, but this is not a horror flick.
Aronofsky wisely lets Lawrence tell the complex story, focusing on his leading lady as the scenes are either her close-ups or shot from her point of view.
Lawrence is superb as a submissive wife free-falling into a bottomless rabbit hole.
Rating: 3.5/5
MOVIE: Mother!
STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer
DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky
THE SKINNY: A newly married couple's (Lawrence and Bardem) relationship is tested when uninvited guests suddenly appear at the doorstep of their secluded country home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
RATING: NC16
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