Review of mother! (2017) by Davey B — 16 Sep 2017

Mother! is a film that doesn't respect its audience. Disguised as a psychological thrill in the marketing and the first 30 minutes of the film, director Darren Aronofsky makes lofty promises of exploring the dark corners of the human mind and the fragility of safety in one's home. Instead, the film transforms itself into a Biblical allegory of the relations among God, Earth, and man. Taken in tandem with a human drama of realistic characters, this hidden meaning could have been an interesting subplay for the audience to uncover on it's own and appreciate in hindsight. Unfortunately for decency, the film drops all forms of realism and simply becomes moral propaganda with uninteresting and shallow symbols of characters. All subtlety is dropped, and the film takes the main message of a frying pan and repeatedly hits it over the head of the audience asking, "Do you get it? Do you see it's the Bible? Do you see that humanity sucks? That you suck?" Honestly, instead of walking out of the movie as I should have, all I kept think while watching it is "Why am I hitting myself?".

It's a shame this movie is awful. It truly is. There are great performances in there, especially by Jennifer Lawrence, whose unwarranted and tasteless abuse in the film is a standby for both Mother Earth and the audience. The editing, cinematography, and the set at the film's beginning do a fantastic job of establishing an intense thriller that never arrives. Instead, the entire film is a vehicle for the director's moral homily delivered from a pulpit. Maybe that was his purpose, to torture us just as we have tortured the Earth. If that's the case, then send your money to the Wildlife Conservation Fund instead of seeing this political propaganda piece in disguise of a decent film.