Aronofsky is no stranger to dark and strange films, nor is he to biblical themes. He includes both in his newest theatrical release Mother! which follows a cast of unnamed characters including Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) who lives in a large three-story house with Him (Javier Bardem), a famous poet, as he struggles to find inspiration for his latest poem. Mother spends her days quietly trying to find motivation for Him, as well as slowly renovating their massive house. Out of the blue, a stranger (Ed Harris) arrives at the door explaining that he's a doctor, new in town, and was told their place was a bed and breakfast. Him invites the stranger (known only as Man) inside and gives him a room for the night. The next day, a Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up claiming to be Man's wife. Mother tries her best to accommodate the guests, all the while silently protesting their visit. The guests are abrasive, messy, rude, and emotionally intrusive. By the time their sons show up for a family squabble, you're feeling just as anxious and claustrophobic as Mother is. Mother gets pregnant, Him writes a new poem, and soon their house is flooded with people just trying to meet such a brilliant writer. That's about all I can tell you without giving away the rest of the film... but suffice it to say once again, that you literally have no idea what's coming. (Also, the characters avoid using these pronouns when addressing one another... this is just how they're listed in the credits. It's not as cheesy as I'm making it sound.)
First off, all of the performances are top notch. I've slowly been warming up to Jennifer Lawrence because I've seen her in films that really show off her acting chops, but I've never really seen her as a different person in any of her films. Silver Linings Playbook was just Katniss Everdeen who spoke more. Joy was just Katniss Everdeen who grew up. But in Mother! you actually get a different person. She's very soft-spoken and timid and there's a constant longing for acceptance in her eyes. When push comes to shove, she's not afraid to stand up for herself (including trying to kick her unwanted guests out of her house), but she also takes the abuse for longer than a normal person would. Bardem is great as the damn near unlikable Him. He's very cold toward his wife and really only warms up to the strangers. There's something in his past that haunts him, that he resents Mother for, but we don't know what it is and it's infuriating. Ed Harris is still as Ed Harris-y as always (this a compliment, by the way) as the sickly houseguest, but it's Pfeiffer who really gets under your skin. She's bitchy and catty and obnoxious and overall just a heinous character. You can tell she's having an absolute blast with the role. However, it's not the cast or their fine acting that polarizes the movie... it's the last forty minutes of the film.
The final forty minutes take a very slowly building and quiet movie and amps everything up to eleven. There are mild clues and moments throughout the story that indicate what is going to happen, but my guess is that most moviegoers are still going to be confused (and angry) as hell when it finally arrives. I watch everything and generally consider myself an Aronofsky fan and even I wasn't exactly expecting what happened to happen. This is fine in a horror movie, but most horror movies will define the rules of the world quite early on... or if not, by the end you'll have a satisfactory explanation. Aronofsky doesn't work that way. He doesn't spoon feed his audience answers. He looks to you to find the interpretations of his work, much like an abstract painting. If you're looking for an answer as to why the strangers (Man and Woman) stay so long in the house and act the way they do... then you're going to be sorely disappointed. If you're looking for a moment when the screen freezes during its hectic climax and Neil Patrick Harris in a suit walks out to go: "Confused? Okay... here's what's going on:", then you're going to be massively disappointed. There are no real explanations of what's going on and Aronofsky, unlike most directors, trusts his audience to figure it out on their own, which I respect. However, with the material given, the casual film-goer isn't going to have the patience to sit there and interpret every allusion, or symbol, or extended metaphor he throws at you, which will, in turn, anger the film goer, and cost the box office the price of a ticket.
So, what's exactly so wrong with the film that it earned an F on Cinemascore? (For those who don't know, getting an F on Cinemascore is as close to impossible as you can get... for example, Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill has a B). The reason that Mother! has such an impossibly low score is that Aronofsky doesn't just shower you with metaphors and symbolism, he saturates you with it... he ice bucket challenges you with it, he grabs your throat and vomits it all over you until you're past the point of "Jeez, I get it, bro!" And it isn't a pleasant metaphor either. He's making some seriously painful religious claims that kind of make sense, but he's taking a very dark point of view with it. The back nine of the movie is so chaotic and so unlike what you've been watching up until this point, that it's very easy to see the story flying off the rails and going deep into what-the-fuck-sville. It's also not a movie that can be advertised very well. I had only seen one trailer for it and a few rumblings that it is being compared to Rosemary's Baby. The trailer looked like Aronofsky might be making a bit of a mainstream horror movie with a wicket twist at the end. Mother! is not exactly a horror movie... sure it's tense, and there are movies where it's downright creepy, it's more along the lines of batshit crazy mixed with disturbing... and pretty much the complete opposite of Rosemary's Baby. And I'm honestly not sure if I liked it or not. I kept trying to figure out what the twist was going to be, and when I was dead wrong... I felt anger and confusion. But, did this stem from the fact that I was wrong... or from the fact that what happened wasn't effective?
Look, there's a lot of good in the film, especially the first half. Somehow Aronofsky is able to establish such a feeling of claustrophobia when it comes to crowds of people that I empathized with Lawrence's character and didn't want to be around another person ever again. Hell, there were probably fifteen people scattered about the theater I was in, and as the movie went on, they all felt like they were too close to me. But, the symbolism vomit that expels out of the movie is almost too thick. Aronofsky doesn't just ride into the ground his commentary and message and metaphor and any other figurative STUFF he loads into the back half, he beats you over the head with it, nay, bludgeons you over the head with it until you're nothing but brain chunks and skull fragments. Fans of his will give him the benefit of the doubt, which I am probably doing, but those unfamiliar with his previous work-- I can't really see how they'll walk out of the movie loving what they've just witnessed. It's not a horror movie, it's not a thriller, it's not even that suspenseful... but it will make you anxious, it will make you squirm, and it will make you utter these exact words as the credits begin to roll: "What the hell did I just watch?"
C-
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