Synopsis
Darren Aronofsky is the director of psychological horror and allegorical thriller Mother!. The film was released in 2017 and continues to be one of the most debated and symbolically rich films in contemporary cinema. It features Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple residing in a house far removed from other people. What starts out seeming like a traditional horror premise shifts towards a more abstract blend of chaotic examinations of religion, creation, fame, the environment, and human destructiveness.
The plot begins with a woman who is referred to as Mother and she lives with her husband whom the credits list as Him. She is restoring an octagonal country house which was ravaged by fire and while it is tranquil as well as forested, it is cut-off from civilization. This large peaceful house is a writer’s block prison. Mother seems perpetually busy solving the issues of order versus chaos and descends into a purging frenzy where she strives to bring balance to their world.
Their peace is disturbed by an uninvited visitor who claims to be a doctor in need of shelter. He ventures directly at the house and, despite Mother’s wishes, Him invites the man to stay the night. As she expected, the man’s wife arrives the next day, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, and the couple’s behavior quickly shifts to invasive and unsettling. Overstepping boundaries, they disrespectfully rummage through the couple’s belongings, drink excessively, and ignore Mother’s desperate wishes for limits. The situation grows more volatile with the appearance of the couple’s two sons, who partake in a violent duel, culminating in one son’s death.
As the film unfolds, the house fills with an increasingly bizarre assortment of intruders which, alongside the couple’s unsettling behavior, drives Him to artistically respond to the upheaval and sorrow. His subsequent publication becomes wildly successful, garnering Him a huge following of devotees. This culminates in an influx of fans who, in stark contrast to Mother’s protests, hysterically venerate Him to the point of insanity. This transforms the domicile into a chaotic arena filled with degrading, ruinous, destructive, feeble cult-like worship.
Pregnant mothers imploring for danger to cease appear to be heard, and calmness reigns as she gives birth to a boy. But chaos resumes when Him passes the child to the worshippers, who circulate the child, turning him into a ‘thing’ of sorts, and in a blend of mindless ritual, ultimately kill him and proceed to consume the remnants in a disturbing form of self-cannibalism. Mother’s utter madness snaps as she loses all hope and rage. This is followed by a desperate attempt to set herself and everyone ablaze whilst burning the last traces of love within. Calm chaos unfolds—Him emerges physically unharmed, embracing mother’s burnt cadaver whispering his desires: love. With her last breath of submission and metamorphosis into crystal—heart plucked to create a void filled metaphor placed upon a pedestal. The catalyst sparks regrowth of the house, like controlling a puppet brings a new woman to life, the cycle commences anew.
Cast & Crew
Director & Writer:
Darren Aronofsky – Visionary films such as Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan and Pi earned him a reputation for unflinching storytelling. Films exploring obsession, sacrifice and human suffering allows viewers a glimpse of the multilayered themes Aronofsky intricately weaves. Mother! marks the culmination of all extremes, as surrealism and allegory become one.
Main Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence as Mother
As the emotional core of the film, Lawrence delivers one of her career’s most intense and vulnerable performances. She captures the essence of a character who is simultaneously nurturing and unraveling rapidly due to a world that refuses to acknowledge her autonomy. Magnificent and tragic, her performance is raw and captivating.
Javier Bardem as Him
Him is the name of the character who, as a husband and father, plays a dashing and narcissistic role. He is a poet who thrives egocentrically on inspiration including but not limited to his poetry. A calm and sometimes enigmatic actor, Bardem’s portrayal of Him grows increasingly sinister in concert with the film’s climax.
Michelle Pfeiffer as Woman
Pfeiffer turns into the judgmental and seductive guest who is not only intrusive but openly defies Mother. Her portrayal is a combination sharp and layered wrapped with lethal undertones.
Ed Harris as Man
Harris portrays the first guest who is both vulnerable and strange. As a polite invader, he triggers unsettling twists in the plot’s progression.
As the warring brothers, Domhnall Gleeson and Brian Gleeson deepen the biblical allegory of the film as Cain and Abel figures.
Cinematography:
Matthew Libatique
Libatique has been with Aronofsky for many years, and Mother! was shot from the hand-held camera perspective which suggests a claustrophobic feeling. The movie is primarily shot from Mother’s perspective, employing narrow framing with close-up and tracking shots which exacerbate the feeling of tension and seclusion.
Production Design:
Symbolically, the house is designed as a living thing and serves as Mother’s heart or soul. It, the structure, pulsates with sounds akin to heartbeats and contains a mysterious crystal, which serves as the core of the house.
Score:
The absence of traditional musical arrangement is striking, but serves to strengthen the sound design. Wood creaking, whispering, feet shuffling, and screaming replace with breath to aid in building tension.
IMDb Ratings
Mother! holds a score of 6.6/10 on IMDb, reflecting its polarizing reception. People went to the theaters filled with expectations and strong controversy was provoked. Film watchers either stood and cheered the work of what they consider a modern film master during the latest premiere—while others left shrieking at what they thought was the atrocious, painful passage of pseudo-intellectual cinema.
Critically, Mother! received acclaim for its “boldness, performance (Lawrence’s in particular) and visual storytelling.” Aronofsky’s unabashed use of metaphor and symbolism drew the comparison to Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski. Nevertheless, the film’s more mainstream confrontational themes—religion, climate change, celebrity, egotism in art, and commodification of the feminine—tend to offend many viewers.
The graphic violence perpetrated towards the child is particularly contentious. Many have told these stories either as powerful allegories depicting destruction and sacrifice, or as mindless violence that is offensive.
Alterations Made To Theme:
Allegory Religious –
Him is often interpreted as God or a deity of some sort, while Mother represents the Earth or the Virgin Mary. Some scholars classify the uninvited guests as mankind while the baby represents Christ. The guests’ destructive reaction is humanity’s exploitation of divinity and nature.
Environmentalism:
Mother’s house is symbolically the Earth. She tends to it, heals it and dedicates herself to protect it, but suffers desecration and destruction at the hands of human greed and carelessness. The film becomes a fierce locus of critique towards the degradation of the environment.
Recognition and Artistic Exploitation:
Recognition and validation issues mirror a creative’s problem with fame. He uses Mother as an inspiration and then sacrifices her peace—and eventually her body—for his work. This could stand in for criticism of the exploitative nature that artists show toward those that serve as their muses and even their supports.
Feminine Suffering:
She endures invasion and emotional abuse as well as violent denial of letting go of what she helps bring to life. Her existence is to give and to give until only an empty vessel through which life flickers. This speaks to larger issues of control and the expectation that women should suffer in silence.
Conclusion
Mother! is a bold and brutal film deeply saturated with allegory which certainly requires more than one viewing and much more than a passing glance. This film deliberately overwhelms the viewer with symbols and chaotic imagery to make interpretation next to impossible. Aronofsky makes a personal and universal cinematic statement that embodies truths about humankind—its relationship with its self, divinity, ego, and humanity’s propensity toward destruction.
Even if not universally adored, there are not two ways of looking at Mother! It stands alone as a work of art which is profoundly and purposefully polarizing. Rather than inviting spectators to sit and observe, it compels us to engage with it intellectually and emotionally, unspooling in our minds long after the credits have rolled.
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