Green Goblin Reviews: Mother!
So about a month ago, I remember seeing the first trailer for Mother! and being immediately intrigued with what I looking at: A psychological suspense film, directed by Black Swan’s Darren Aronofsky, set around the single location of a gigantic house in the middle of nowhere, with Jennifer Lawrence as your guide down into madness? Yeah, ok. No real points for originality, but good craftsmanship is good craftsmanship and I’m liking all the names attached to this. I made sure I had time set aside to catch the premiere and sat down in my seat, eager to venture down this journey. I get up two and a half hours later, thinking how very accurate “journey” is to describe this film; ups and downs along the way, but the biggest feeling you get as the credits is a sense of exhaustion. And I do believe that’s by design here, but just because a decision is deliberate doesn’t always mean that it was a good one.
Our film centers around Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem’s no-name-given protagonists. The two are married and staying at his previously burned down family home, which she is rebuilding for him while he attempts to write his next great novel. One day, the couple here a knock on the front door and are greeted by a stranger (Ed Harris) who mistook their home for a bed and breakfast and rather than turning him away, he’s given leeway to stay the night as their guest (with Bardem’s character being more keen on this idea than Lawrence’s). The guest shows a lack of knowledge in relation to personal boundaries, but claims to be a very big fan of the author and doesn’t put up too much of a fuss for the couple. That is, until the next day when more of the guest’s family and friends start showing up and coming up with increasingly more socially awkward ways to alienate Lawrence’s character within her own home. These guests go from offering the clearly introverted woman unwanted sex advice to painting rooms in the house without asking her permission, to attempting to have sex in her bedroom. It’s a level of discomfort that the audience really feels and holds onto throughout the film as you and Lawrence both ask yourselves repeatedly why her husband is super cool with all of these unruly house guests invading their privacy to a more than unforgivable degree.
I don’t want to get into anymore further details, because I think that the rest of this film needs to be seen fresh for what it is and because spoilers will honestly ruin this the first time through. Though, once you’ve figured out what’s going on, it’s a little ruined on its own. Folks, I won’t lie to you. This is a weird one. Not in a “Wow!! That was so surreal, it’s worth recommending just on tone and imagery alone!!” which is what I think director Darren Aronofsky was attempting to establish, similarly to his previous work with Black Swan. The problem though is that this film revolves around a single hook that once you realize, the rest of the film becomes waaaaay too predictable. And perhaps you’ll not realize until the very end, but it was noticeable to me within maybe the first 20 minutes what was going on. As a result, the impact of the scenes I don’t think hit in the gut-punch way the director wants you to feel it. You’re still taken aback to witnessing some of the madness or violence on screen capitulated in such a way, but you knew it was coming anyway to stay in line with the hook. This entire effort then comes across as a bit of a whiff, unfortunately. And it takes a little too long to actually get there with certain scenes taking too long to deliver on what you knew was coming before the scene started. Thankfully, it’s made up by stellar acting not just in our two starring roles, but in every support cast roll as well with fantastic performances from the likes of Michelle Pheiffer, Kristen Wiig and Steven McHattie.
I can still give this film a recommendation on the wonderful acting and cinematography, but I can’ pretend I’m not a little let down. This is not on the same level as Black Swan, but few films are. If your goal is to feel discomfort, confusion and unease for an extended period of time, you could do far worse.
6.5/10
I’d say it’s worth a look on home media, but there’s really no rush. You’d honestly be better off catching IT if you haven’t already.