Director Darren Aronofsky is famous for his way of hitting audiences where it hurts. Behind the widely successful movies Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, Aronofsky sends painful reminders that the world is not a beautiful place.
After the release of Aronofsky’s Mother!, it seems exactly half of audiences react to it as a masterpiece, and the other half react as if it was the worst film ever shown on screen. How could these reviews be so extremely polarized? It is almost as if people are watching entirely different movies. Comments have been made that it is the most controversial movie since Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Mother! has also recently entered an exclusive club of an “F” on CinemaScore.
With Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer and more allstars involved in the cast, it seems nothing can go wrong. Going into the movie blind results in confusion of audiences and negative reviews. Instead of seeing the film as a giant allegory, it is seen as a pathetic and all over the place horror movie. The character “Mother” (Jennifer Lawrence) portrays mother earth. Her husband (Javier Bardem) plays a writer/poet, but represents a form of God. “It’s a hard film to watch. But it’s important for people to understand the allegory we intended.” Jennifer Lawrence told The Telegraph.
Without giving the plot away, Mother! is clearly made for a certain type of crowd. It is stomach turning, scarring, and not a light hearted movie to see with friends. It is psychologically heavy and it is a better watch understanding the allegory before walking into the theater. It is a movie for people who aren’t offended by intense torture scenes and go to a movie to be more than just entertained. It is hard to define this movie because it cannot be put into a category or compared to any other film. “It’s a weird movie,” Director Aronofsky admits to Entertainment Tonight. “You go into it thinking you’re watching one type of movie and it shifts into another type of movie. And then it keeps changing, and by the end, hopefully you’re shaken and deeply moved.”
