Review of Mother (2009) by Donmanias — 22 Jan 2018

Contrary to the majority of critics and fans of "Mother!", a movie that has been called a "visceral trash-arthouse experience" (the Playlist) and a "pretentious film that kicks out the lights" (the Guardian) I found this movie nonsensical and idiotic. Yes, it has shock value, and yes, it does have some moments of great, symbolic imagery, but ultimately this is a movie that does not have a plot, it wants to tell a story but does not care what the story is, it wants to cause shock, but does not try to do it by means of its ideas but by means of violence for violence's sake (and a big budget, and the heavy use of CGI). As such, this movie ultimately fails on all levels, except maybe trying to make a case about Aronofsky being a bold and imaginative person- which, in my opinion, is a question that should concern his friends and his agent, not the viewing public.

As far as I am concerned, there was no genius on display here. I saw pretentiousness, I saw lack of cohesion, and yes I saw some beautiful shots, which - however - relied mostly on CGI.

I consider this to be Aronofsky's weaker moment, a truly bad movie that does not know what it is and does not care to find out. Had this been an arthouse film with unknown actors and a 5k budget, I would recommend it for its bold style and genuinely scary moments, but primarily because this would be the movie of an unknown who is screaming for attention (look what imagery I created with the money I got by selling my car and an 8mm camera).

Aronofsky is not this position, however; nor are his star actors. As such, I think this movie is mostly the product of a narcissistic personality disorder and less of a work of art.