Review of mother! (2017) by Saintdecky — 26 Sep 2017

Mother! is a creepy, thrilling, well-executed, for the most part, movie... for the first hour. For me, the second hour, which includes the orgy of random violence and senseless destruction, destroyed most of the things I liked about the whole first half.

Acting: Jennifer Lawrence is good, except her character doesn't have much to do or even an arc. She spends nearly the entire movie looking confused or disapproving. Javier Bardem is perfect for the role and shines in it, with his booming voice and appearance. Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer are also amazing. Overall the casting and acting is great, and everyone fits their roles perfectly.

Characters: Again, Lawrence's character doesn't have much of an arc, intentionally, I assume, but still, and spends the entirety of the movie asking questions and sounding worried and confused. Plot: I loved the first half of this movie. I love the kind of movies that keep you guessing and trying to figure everything out. Get Out and even It Comes at Night are good examples of this, both of which I also loved. The first hour makes you so tense, scared even, and creeped out, but in a good way. Every creak of the house, every time she is in the basement, it instills fear, even if nothing happens. I appreciated the camera angles, moving along with Lawrence to give it from her perspective, which made the house seem bigger and made you scared every time she even turned a corner, not sure what's behind it at times. But this does get repetitive throughout the movie, as it is mainly just a shot following her, a shot in front of her, and so forth. I would have appreciated more wider and further away shots of her, creating the feeling that something or someone is watching her, giving off even more creepiness. This first half of the movie was well-done, paced well, and tense, creepy, and mysterious. However, the second half ruined most of it for me. I walked into the theater expecting it to be violent from the start, as some critics have coined the movie "torture porn," so when the first hour rolled by and there was none, I was confused. But soon after, I saw what they meant. It is pure chaos, senseless violence that was hard to watch, and not in a good way. It was completely unbelievable, and I know that was intentional, but it took away from the surreal-yet-somewhat-real feel of the first half. It went completely bonkers and crazy, and just felt like I was watching Aronofsky string random violence and things together to make some kind of allegory. Which brings me to another point, the imagery. This is the first Aronofsky film I have seen, and it doesn't make me think he's a genius. Some say this movie is a movie you won't forget, and I won't forget it any time soon, but in a really bad way. I will remember this movie because of the shock-value feel over actual story-telling in the second half. I will remember it because of the senseless and random violence that ruined a movie I was enjoying. I remember a good movie, like Get Out, because of how good the story-telling, script, characters, and plot was, and I remember It Comes at Night because of the twist it put on horror movies and psychological dramas. Mother! isn't innovative just because it was a Biblical allegory, which it seems it is, because it has been done before, multiple times. Also, the twist at the end was predictable within the last 30 minutes or so, and seems smart at first, but doesn't really make sense when you think about it. It raises questions, but not good, thought-provoking questions like It Comes at Night, but rather ones that question what just happened, because it makes no sense. The story is obviously not grounded in reality, but when the entire first half of the movie can be seen as somewhat realistic at times and the second half completely ditches it, I don't know what to think of the twist. Also, I feel Aronofsky did this multiple times throughout. There were scenes and things in the first half that looked cool at the time, but when looking back on it served no purpose and was seemingly there just to look cool. I don't have a huge problem with that as long as it has at least some significance or isn't used countless times throughout the movie.

Violence: Over-the-top for no reason, crazy, random, and doesn't make for a good movie. I think Aronofsky needs to see a therapist.

Overall, Mother! started off well with a well-executed first hour that invoked fear from the lack of knowledge of the story and where it could go, but ended on a bad note with senseless, random violence that ruined my enjoyment. Every fragment of the 4, more a 4.5 in my head, was purely from the first hour. Don't take your grandma to see this movie.