Review of Mother (2009) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is a relatively frenetic film, with lots of shaky camerawork, quite fast paced scenes of initially domesticity but then something goes wrong. Jennifer Lawrence I thought did quite well as the clearly anxious wife, very much sensing things are going to go badly wrong and having to deal with the situation she finds herself in.

This is less of a jumpscare heavy sort of a horror film and more of a slightly spooky film with a heavy emphasis on symbols and how you interpret things. There is a fair bit of blood shown across some scenes, so be aware of that.

There's also some hushed dialogue which was a bit hard to follow in full, which may frustrate some. I'd say its fairly atmospheric. The tone of voice of some of the male characters is definitely...frustrating and borderline creepy possibly.

I imagine a lot of women could relate to the feeling of loss of control, loss of space and privacy that's portrayed in this film. Javier Bardem also gives a pretty decent performance in this claustrophobic film.

It won't be a film that will appeal to all and I felt it seemed a bit ludicrous when pace wise it headed towards the last quarter or so but overall its relatively good for what it is, so I suppose I would recommend it, yes.