Review of mother! (2017) by Lovro H — 05 Nov 2017

Mother! is directed by the fantastic Darren Aronofsky and stars Javier Bardem as Him and Jennifer Lawrence as mother. The story follows Jennifer and Javier living a peaceful life in their huge house when all of a sudden, people start dropping in uninvited to their home and disrupt their privacy and life.

Or is that the plot? I'll put up a SPOILER ALERT right here because there's no way I can write a spoiler-free review for this movie. So! Javier Bardem is God, Jennifer Lawrence is Mother Nature and their house is, basically, Earth, with the exception of Bardem's room which is a symbol for Garden of Eden.

The people that start entering their house are, at first, biblical characters. The first person that enters the house is also the first human, Adam (played by Ed Harris). The night he comes to the house, we see he has a wound on the side of his chest implying that a rib was taken from him.

The next day, a woman comes to the house and we find out she's Adam's wife, Eve. Then come their two sons, Cain and Abel. I'm sure you get the point by now. Of course, none of this is in the trailers or in the plot synopsis.

This movie was marketed as your regular horror/thriller and that's why I think this movie was so hated by many. They got something so much bigger and deeper than just a "house invasion" movie.

Darren Aronofsky is famous for his surreal vision and controversial themes he puts in his movies. This movie is obviously not an exception, so I went in thinking it's going to be one of those movies and I was right.

It was fairly easy to follow the plot and to connect the clues Aronofsky gave us. I, honestly, have no idea how someone could miss the point of this movie. The ending, especially, is very unsubtle and obvious.

But, alright, to each their own. I found this movie exceptionally disturbing and traumatizing! It's a very slow paced movie at first. It builds and builds and then just lets it all out in the last half an hour.

I was constantly entertained by the characters and the story because I was always looking for clues in scenes that might point me in the right direction of what this movie is about. The dialogue is also very spot-on! There's a lot to digest regarding this movie and going in knowing what you're getting yourself in is crucial.

I've heard people say this is the worst movie they ever saw while going out of the cinema. I think of this movie as a "love it or hate it" movie. So far I've only come across completely positive or completely negative reviews.

Noone seems to be inbetween. As you can see by my score, I absolutely loved it! I think it's one of the best movies to come out this year exactly because of all the metaphors and symbolism. I love when movies slowly give you clues and let you interpret them by yourself, instead of the movie doing that for you.

As mentioned earlier, the last 30 minutes are absolutely insane and most certainly the most disturbing scenes I've seen in a movie in a while. The fact that the entire movie has no original score only heigthens the tension and the trauma portrayed on the screen.

Another brilliant decision by Aronofsky was to show everything that's happening from the perspective of Jennifer Lawrence, Mother Nature. Throughout the entire movie the camera is either behind or in front of her.

Where she goes, we go; what she sees, we see; what she hears, we hear. This adds a very personal feel to the movie and makes it even more special. I could talk for hours about what the metaphors in this movie are and how everything connects to the Bible and the Testaments, but that would take way too much time to type.

The acting was majestic from everyone, especially Jennifer Lawrence to whom I have to give major props because 90% of the movie is her and she is phenomenal. Oscar-worthy, honestly. Javier Bardem is also fantastic in his portrayal of God and I love how his character is in complete contrast to Lawrence's which was a very wise decision by the director as it leads to very thought-provoking scenes regarding nature and what we, people, are doing to her.

All in all, mother! is remarkable movie that I have to recommend. It's so shocking and so poignant that you'll be thinking about for many days after. I'm actually glad there aren't many movies like this made that often because it really comes as a refreshment when a movie like this finally comes out and I'm able to witness it on the glorious big screen in a dark room.

Absolutely go see this, I highly recommend it, but keep an open mind, don't hate just because you don't understand it.