‘mother!’: Film Review | Venice 2017
Darren Aronofsky’s latest stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a married couple whose lives start unraveling when unexpected guests arrive at their home.
Writer-director Darren Aronofsky wants to have his commercial cake and chomp down on some vexing personal issues, too, in mother!, a very Rosemary’s Baby-like intimate horror tale that definitely grabs your attention and eventually soars well over the top to make the bold concluding statement that, for some creators, art is more important than life. How the film’s compelling star Jennifer Lawrence may feel about this sentiment is another matter, but this is a tale that, like any number of fanciful genre outings, both pulls you in with its intriguing central dramatic situation and pushes you out with some mightily far-fetched plot contrivances. Aesthetically resembling Black Swan more than any of the director’s other previous work, but with touches of Requiem for a Dream, this Paramount release could score solidly with the public on the basis of the genre elements and the star’s drawing power. It opens Sept. 15 after festival bows in Venice and Toronto …
Based on only this review, it seems like this story is a metaphor for God, the garden of Eden and an “earth-mother” figure that doesn’t necessarily fit into a Judeo-Christian theological perspective, but may represent the physical universe/planet that humans are despoiling.
I probably won’t get to around to watching this one (no slight on Aronofsky), so somebody please tell me if I’m close on this.
‘mother!’ Review: Darren Aronofsky’s Audacious and Rich Cinematic Allegory Is His Most Daring Film Yet
The auteur’s super-secret new psychological horror is a nightmarish dreamscape. It does not disappoint.
“mother!” begins as a slow burn and builds toward a furious blaze. Awash in both religious and contemporary political imagery, Darren Aronofsky’s allusive film opens itself to a number of allegorical readings, but it also works as a straight-ahead head rush. Not just another baroquely orchestrated big-screen freak-out in the vein of “Black Swan” (though it is very much that), the film touches on themes that — if too hazily figurative to be in any way autobiographical — at least tread on factors in the director’s own life.
Come for the house that bleeds; stay for the reflections on parenthood and the difficulty of living with fame …
mother! Final Trailer
https://youtu.be/iT8U3_nVIa8