Oh Mother!
There’s no question: nothing released in mainstream cinemas this year (or the next for that matter) will come even close to being anything like Darren Aronofsky’s mother!. That it even got such a wide release is genuinely incredible (thanks, J-Law; thanks, Black Swan’s $300 million box office bounty). On one hand, mother! is exactly the type of film we need more of these days: an audacious, visionary and unpredictable smorgasbord of all-out insanity that’s a complete antithesis of the watered-down, studio-dabbled pap we’ve become accustomed to these days. On that principle, I cannot recommend mother! enough. It’s exactly the thing we ask for when we say we want more ‘original ideas’. With that in mind, the question still remains: is Mother! a good film? And therein lies my complicated and slightly frustrating relationship with it. The answer is…not really. mother! is unequivocally all of those things that I mentioned above. But it’s also a frustratingly shallow, pretentious and ultimately colourless film that often intrigues but never fully captivates.
The general concept, as with other Aronofsky works, is simple enough. Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a nameless married couple who live in a large, secluded house out in the woods. She spends her days renovating the house, while he, a poet, remains holed up in his office attempting to progress past his writers block. Their marriage, while not quite on the rocks, is somewhat unstable. With him being preoccupied with his writing, she feels a sense of lacking. One night, a stranger (Ed Harris) arrives at their door. The man claims to be a doctor as well as a fan of the husband’s poetry. The husband, against his wife’s wishes, invites him to stay the night. The next day, the stranger’s wife (Michelle Pfieffer, on great Pfieffer form) arrives, encroaching on the wife’s privacy and boundaries further.
To say much more would be detrimental to the experience of watching mother!. The film is more of an allegorical piece, treating its narrative secondary to its subtext and themes. Of which there are a LOT. From religious allegories to toxic masculinity to the art of creation, mother! makes sure to always be questioning what it’s really talking about. Hell, it even goes as far as including the idea of Mother Earth and the state of humanity. Yeah, it’s less a house of horrors than it is a house of metaphors. Conclusions to what the film is talking about will unquestionably vary from viewer to viewer. The problem I have with this, however, is Aronosky never finds a concrete theme to latch onto. None of these are developed enough to justify their presence, and it leaves the film with a gaping lack of purpose. In his attempt at coming across as ‘profound’, it instead comes across as self-indulgent. I’m not necessarily asking for easy answers, but there’s a significant absence of any sort of payoff that essentially renders your time redundant.
My main problem with mother! and the reason it underwhelmed me so greatly comes down to that of the characters and their paper-thin development. The first third of the film deftly builds up a sense of foreboding atmosphere and intrigue (Aronofsky really is a master at developing mood and feeling). However, you quickly start to get the sense that you’ve not been given a way into these characters, which, when you’re spending 2 hours watching something restricted to one location, is kinda important. Aronofsky can shoot Lawrence in as many close-ups as he wants; it’s not going to give us more investment if the character development is lacking. Despite Lawrence’s best efforts (she’s genuinely captivating here), the lack of character works as somewhat of a domino effect throughout the rest of the film. So even though it intrigues for a good deal of its 2 hour running time, it’s hard to actually care about what is happening. That’s a problem. Soon the intrigue wears off, and the third act, which descends into the most batshit piece of insanity put to screen all year, has a lesser impact as a result. It almost feels as though Aronofsky is purely attempting to one-up himself with how polarising and ‘insane’ he can be, which to me is the least engaging type of polarising art. There are many moments in the third act that venture into exploitation territory, which comes across as unpleasant and uncomfortable rather than having an actual purpose. It becomes too melodramatic, too repetitive, and worst of all, boring.
On a visual and aural level, mother! is more engaging. There is some highly accomplished technical filmmaking going on here. The first half is almost like a Bergman-esque chamber drama on steroids. Aronofsky crafts some truly memorable images that will be seared onto your retinas for weeks, though his excessive use of close-ups do become increasingly irritating. The real MVP here, however, is the truly outstanding sound design. Combined with Jóhann Jóhannsson’s minimalist score, the soundscape elevates its otherwise dull surroundings and leaves a haunting spectre over the film.
So yes, I didn’t at all care for mother!. It’s too shallow to make any sense of a proper impact and too often trips over its own pretensions in its attempt at being deep. But I absolutely can’t hate on its existence, and regardless of whether you loved it or hated it, neither should you. At the weekend, I couldn’t scroll through my Twitter feed without coming across a take/opinion on it that was completely different than the take/opinion that came before it. That to me is why I’m so grateful for its existence, and why I urge you to go see it. For a film to be released on such a major platform that also creates a genuinely exciting conversation in this age of streaming and disposable entertainment is extremely important, and I can’t credit Aronofsky enough for making that film. The film didn’t click for me, but the differing reactions to it are making me want to revisit it and reapproach it with an even more open mind. And that is what all art is about. mother! is an alienating mess of a film, but by god if I’m not glad it exists.