mother!

I've just watched Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!

It was wild.  From the off I knew it was going to be a weird movie.  I’ve seen all of Aronofsky’s films (until The Whale) and I have found them very interesting, even the ones I didn’t like (looking at you Noah).  I think he made this movie off the back of Noah because there… a few religious undertones and with Noah not being received very well I think Aronofsky was keen to set out of the PG-13 world and back to the freedom of a higher age rating.  I don’t check age ratings (I'm a grown ass man you can't spot me BBFC) but when searching the posters I noticed the red circled 18.  This always perks my interest because we live in a society where this is difficult.  And this movie definitely deserved it.  To be honest it really becomes a hard 18 over a wild couple of scenes.  But that comes later…

The movie starts with a weird horror feel about it.  It’s like the house could be a monster and we (the main characters and the audience) are living in that monster.  But it didn't go the way I thought. I thought Aronofsky was going to make the haunted house movie a monster movie. He didn't Instead he made a movie about humanity (and a religious allegory).  Look, the movie is surreal and that is to convey the directors ideas across.  I have to think that Aronofsky put a large part of himself in the movie.  I mean other than his interest in religion and the environment, which are the obvious parts of the movie.  But he definitely put himself as the male character, Him.  Does that mean Aronofsky thinks he is god?  Probably not but more so that Javier Bardem’s character is a poet, a creative who is trying to produce his next masterpiece.  I mean isn't that what every creative does?  Don’t all creative people want to create a masterpiece that is loved by the masses?  This is clear as day when the end of the movie comes round.  Of course spoilers are coming here…

So Jennifer Lawrence’s mother! Ends up giving her heart to the poet to remake the house, the world, and start the cycle all over.  I think this tries to say that to create the perfect product, a masterpiece, you need to give (and/or take) everything.  Destroy your world, to achieve this goal.  That's the first reading I got from this movie.  And I like that.  I like that idea.  Only through great sacrifice do we become masters of our work?

Obviously the religious meaning is less subtle.  Much less subtle.  Javier Bardem plays God, Jennifer Lawrence plays Mother Earth, Ed Harris (who is in this movie) plays Adam, Michelle Pfeiffer plays Eve and so on and so forth.  The movie basically plays through Biblical events, mostly Old Testament stories like the great flood, Cain and Abel, until Jennifer Lawrence gives birth to a son, basically Jesus.  The build up to the birth is total madness.  Cults have formed, wars have broken out and a mass invasion of the house has taken place.  Oh yea, all this takes place in one house with Lawrence movie from one room to more carnage in the next then to even more chaos in the following room. This cacophony of crazy relaxes just in time for Lawrence to give birth. 

And here we get serious.  I don’t really want to stray too far from casual entertainment in this blogcast, but…  I do think this movie goes too far in what happens next.  Which is weird to write because I do think this movie is great even with this scene.  I understand its purpose but I don't like seeing it.  I can justify its existence in the movie because the whole movie is an allegory but I did make it easy to watch.

So, what happens is grim, and it will be too much for a lot of people (like me).  But… fair warning…

The new born baby gets passed around the crowd who, of course, don't treat it with care.  The baby is killed and the crowd eat the baby.  It’s, yeah.

So enough of that.  It’s still uncomfortable thinking and writing about it.

mother! is a movie you will either love or hate but I liked the ideas, obvious allegory and despite the gross scene at the end thought it was interesting enough and different enough to the mass released films to intrigue and get me thinking.  Which is more than your average movie nowadays.