3.5 Out of 5 Stars
Mother! the new film by Darren Aronofsky hit theaters last week and seems more like the film the director would have made after he broke up with Jennifer Lawrence. With its thinly disguised metaphors dealing with an older poet (Javier Bardem) suffering from writer’s block who is married to a beautiful young woman (Jennifer Lawrence) as their muse/artist relationship isn’t quite what it used to be. As the poet struggles to start his newest masterpiece, “Mother” (Lawrence) toils away restoring the poet’s childhood home by herself after it was damaged in a fire.
One day a couple (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) show up on Mother’s doorstep and begin to challenge her idyllic existence. Like most Aronofsky films, their arrival triggers the director’s trademark decent into madness as Mother’s life begins to crumble thanks to her visitors.

Mother! thankfully has Jennifer Lawrence tackling a much more adult narrative with Darren Aronofsky turning in one of his most transgressive films to date. The actress here is our conduit into this experience as we spend most of the film seeing her being overwhelmed by the things happening around her. While it has the actress doing a lot of reacting to things the entire film, it’s because of Lawrence’s subtle range that turns this into one of her most captivating performances to date. The great about Mother! is thanks to its surreal qualities, symbolism and multiple layers of metaphors it can be read several different ways with almost countless interpretations. The big three that stood out to me was:
  1. The relationship between the artist and the muse: “A creator always needs a muse. As long as the universe is expanding, men will be using women.” This quote by Jennifer Lawrence pretty much sums up Mother! in a nutshell. Artists are insufferable and after watching this film I feel like I need so send Rachel Weisz a fruit basket on Aronofsky’s behalf. While there are some very obvious autobiographical conclusions you can draw from the film, with the house being the largest of them all essentially functioning as the very one-sided relationship Mother is charged with maintaining
  2. Aronofsky gets biblical – We all know Aronofsky loves interpreting the Bible (see 8 Diagram Pole Fighter Noah) and Mother! is an intriguing Christ metaphor riddled with religious symbolism, with “Him” as a detached God taking joy in the madness he has created.
  3. Finally, Mother Earth – Overpopulation, climate change and a worldwide cleansing is just another way to look at the moral of Mother!.

While I overall enjoyed Mother! I did feel with how obvious we fall into metaphor by the film’s third act, its garish set pieces begin to feel a tad forced and simply for shock. For Aronofsky Mother! maybe his most divisive film yet that audiences are going to be surprised with when they realize they aren’t simply getting a by the numbers psychological thriller starring Katniss from the Hunger Games. I love the audacity of the vision here, and the fact that the film’s narrative just feels so raw and open to interpretations, 10 people could watch this and all walk away with something different. Mother! may not be for most, but it’s the kind of film only someone like Aronofsky can unleash on unsuspecting audiences.