Film Review: Mother! Is The “Don Quixote” of Horror Films
Synopsis: Javier Bardem plays a “writer’s blocked” poet, who moves his new wife, Jennifer Lawrence, into a Victorian home where they plan to renovate, start a family, and, hopefully, inspire him creatively, again. Yet, when when uninvited guests arrive at their home their tranquil existence is disrupted.
Mother! written and directed by Darren Aronofsky has me torn, which I kind of love. On one hand it is a smart, surreal, and beautifully harrowing reflection on fame, religion, and politics, which, in essence, can each be symptoms of humanity’s need to fantasize and grapple attention so that it can feel “special”. Then, on the other hand, it can be okay. Mother! suffers from what I call the “Don Quixote” problem; named after my favorite book that I did not enjoy!
The “Don Quixote” problem is what I call really dense films or books that become fascinating as you unwrap their symbols with friends over margaritas and guac. You love them after you see them, but not, exactly, during. Suddenly, something that made you say “Meh!” in theaters, makes you say “Woah!”in life. Personally, I love those films because they give me a brazened opportunity for arrogance. I can flash my heavily student loaned PHD in psychology, and proudly wear my T-Shirt that says, “I Am Literally Broke Because I’m Smart :)!”. Yet, on a human level, it is always fun to unpack meanings, and Mother! gives you a LOT to unpack. From the disquieting, even biblical relationship between mother! (Jennifer Lawrence) and Him (Javier Bardem) to the fact that we never learn their actual names, Aronofsky leaves no scene, movement, or motivation in the film without an undercurrent of human challenges, symbols, and questions. As the house becomes more hauntingly alive and creepier guests begin to turn a once happy couple renovating their home into the Hollywood version of the Manson family, some viewers will feel riveted and others will feel perplexed. Yet, the point is, you will feel something and you will talk about it.
Aronofsky’s movie feels like a highly stylized art film. Divided into two parts, with a time difference between, you feel like you are watching the most gorgeous indie-horror flick. Jennifer Lawrence is, literally, in every frame with so many close-up shots, you might feel like her dermatologist. Yet, she is beautiful, and, of course, she kills the part. You feel her complete lostness as a human being with her own bag of insecurities that now needs to watch her husband slowly lose his mind while she is pregnant (potentially with a baby from hell!). Lawrence’s character is the epitomized version of every wife that looked at her husband and said,“Really, Honey! This is what you are going to do with your life!”. #choices. Of course, Ed Harris and Javier Bardem are great, but seeing Michelle Pfeiffer “all diabolical” on screen made me want to scream, “PRAISE JESUS!”. I LOVE this woman for her ability to purely play manipulation for what it is; the sexiest, douchiest thing you could do to a person. She walks into every scene like she owned it, and you are just finding out! Her and Lawrence shine throughout the film, which amps up Mother! ’s own commentary on women’s equality/ femininity an energy. YES! Mother! is that kind of film. It can reach Kurt Vonnegut levels of meaty meanings and imagery that will have pretentious intellectuals, like myself, discussing for days over everything- bagels and expresso shots. You can see Mother!, in theaters, on September 15.
