Review of mother! (2017) by John M — 24 Sep 2017

Brace yourself. So this is about a couple (Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem) who live in a large house in seclusion, away from the rest of the world. They've recently had to rebuild their home after a fire, and they are almost back to normal when a stranger (Ed Harris) shows up.

The more time passes, the more uninvited guests show up. What exactly is going on here? This is one of the most polarizing films to be released in years, and it really does not seem like there is hardly any middle ground.

People either love it or vehemently hate it (this earned the extremely rare cinemascore of an F), and feel passionate about it either way. I ended up landing closer to the former camp, but I will say that I 100% understand the people who take umbrage with this.

To let you stand the best chance of connecting with this movie, I would like to talk about what this actually is, as I do believe that I personally approached this in the correct fashion. I didn't get any spoilers, nor will I list any here, but the one thing I was aware of before sitting down is that this is not a horror movie, or at least not in the way that it is marketed to be.

If you were to watch a trailer for this, you would get the impression that this is some thriller with lots of dark twists and turns, and it really isn't. I guess that the production studio didn't have faith that they could make any money off of this otherwise, and this still did not end up performing all that well, even considering a relatively modest $30 million budget.

It's more of an art drama than anything, and while there are some horror elements to it, it is about as much of a horror movie as Black Swan is. Because I knew this, I was able to get into it and I ultimately was able to appreciate everything that Aronofsky was trying to do.

I think that this is Aronofsky getting back to his artistic roots after the very commercial Noah, and he's a director that I have always admired. This isn't going to be one his movies that I get a whole lot of mileage out of, but it is a return to form.

I liked the production values of this, including the cinematography and the sound design. You get a sense that there is something being withheld from you, and because the intrigue is there, you are waiting for the reveal the whole time.

I do think that it successfully pulls it off, even with how bonkers this gets at the end. I was concerned that this was going to be something like I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and it most certainly is not that.

You should approach this with the proper expectations, and with an open mind to understand metaphor.