Hell of a mental exercise

GOING in to see a Darren Aronofsky film, you should be expecting a certain kind of experience: it is a dark and twisted place inside this guy’s mind.

So, if you thought The Wrestler was a bit too optimistic and Black Swan wasn’t nearly insane enough, Aronofsky’s latest horror film, mother!, is for you.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, mother! is the story of a husband and wife, living in an isolated country house, whose peaceful existence is shattered when unexpected visitors arrive on their doorstep, and bring increasing amounts of drama with them.

And if the first half of the movie is brooding, sinister and disconcerting, then the second half is full-tilt bonkers.

It is hard to say too much more about the story without spoiling it, but let’s just say things escalate quickly. And weirdly.

There is still so much speculation about exactly what Aronofsky (who wrote, produced and directed the movie) was actually trying to say with this film, and I’m pretty sure I’ll still be trying to decipher it for weeks or months yet.

What is certain is that it is an allegory for creation, in the Biblical sense, and about religious fervour, love and devotion more broadly.

And you need look no further than Aronofsky’s oddly compelling take on Noah from a few years back to get a taste of what happens when this guy starts to dig around inside religious mythology and symbolism.

mother! is packed with clever motifs and symbolism, the most obvious being the prevalence of octagons everywhere: the house is an octagon, the doorknobs, the windows, the crockery, even a frying pan glimpsed on one scene.

The number 8 and the octagon are important in Christian symbolism because they signify resurrection and spiritual rebirth. Early Christian churches were often eight-sided, and so are most baptismal fonts.

All of this is relevant to the story if you care to look.

Aronofsky has been relatively coy about revealing exactly what he was trying to say with this film, but he has given a few hints.

Part of it deals with the metaphorical mother of us all, and how we let our obsessions and passions get in the way of actually enjoying life.

He has also created a crazy little microcosm of humanity, the religiondominated world with its schisms, holy wars, and all manner of sins committed in the name of belief.

Artistically it is a fascinating movie, shot on grainy 16mm film. It is framed almost entirely in tight closeup, which creates a claustrophobic and disorienting sensation as the camera wanders and lurches around the strange architecture of the house.

There is no musical score in the entire movie, with the exception of one song that plays during the closing credits.

The feelings mother! provokes are quite profound and intense. I’m not quite sure what Aronofsky’s purpose is in making you feel them, but they are definitely very powerful, and maybe you only take from this film what you bring with you.

The sense of violation you feel during the first half, as the visitors arrive at the house, is quite uncomfortable and harrowing, and at the point where it suddenly tips over into a complete invasion it feels like a “rape and pillage”.

Aronofsky has a real talent (maybe an obsession) for depicting festering madness, punctuated with massive outbursts of unbridled insanity, and the vision of pandemonium he creates in the film’s second half is something straight out of Dante’s depictions of hell.

It is a mentally exhausting experience, less a film, more of a waking nightmare committed to the screen.

I spent a huge amount of time squinting and peering at the screen trying to work out just what the hell was going on as it spiralled ever more wildly into chaos. It was hard work, but utterly compelling.

It is certainly an art film, more than a mainstream flick, and by the time the credits rolled several people at my screening were walking out muttering about how stupid it was.

So be prepared to really commit yourself to this one. It’s not an easy film to understand (I’m pretty sure nobody has fully deciphered it yet), but the point of the experience is the feeling and emotions the story will evoke in the viewer.

There’s a story to it, there is a moral to it (sort of), there is a message or two buried in it somewhere, it is certainly a criticism of the destructiveness of religious fervour, and a very cunning allegory for a big tangled web of issues.

Make sure you see it with someone else because this is one film you will need to spend some time dissecting afterwards. It is confronting and dense, but certainly a challenge worth accepting.

mother! is now showing at the State Cinema, Village Cinemas and Cmax, rated MA15 Rating: