MOTHER!
CERT 18, 121 MINUTES, OPENS 15 SEPTEMBER
THE PLOT From intense psycho-drama
Black Swan (hit!) to infuriatingly baffling sci-fi The Fountain (miss!), writer-director Darren Aronofsky never makes a safe, conventional film – even his uneven Bible tale Noah was at least original. Now, he makes his boldest move yet with this unclassifiable picture about a poet with writer’s block (Spanish hunk Javier Bardem) living with his young wife and muse (Jennifer Lawrence) in a beautiful old house that she’s been lovingly restoring. Their peace is invaded when a local doctor (Ed Harris) and his wife (an on-form Michelle Pfeiffer) prove less than ideal house guests, but this is only the prelude to further incursions from the outside world that escalate into surreal terror.
WHAT’S RIGHT WITH IT? Shot by Aronofsky’s regular director of photography Matthew Libatique, and with Jóhann Jóhannsson (Arrival) as composer and sound consultant, Mother! uses every trick in the book to create a sense of tense unease from the opening frame. The effect is wholly gripping, but only because it’s also anchored by the suitably compelling presences of Oscar-winners Lawrence and Bardem. As the horror mounts, Aronofsky widens the film’s scope, addressing modern society’s celebrity obsession, narcissistic selfentitlement and deep spiritual crisis.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT? The film’s extreme trajectory, in which it earns its 18 certificate for strong violence, will repel some – as might the director’s seeming Messiah complex. And while it’s truly not like any movie we’ve seen, some jaded critics will say Aronofsky is stealing more than a few moves from the king of classy genre filmmaking, Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby).
VERDICT To call Mother! a home invasion film doesn’t begin to describe the unsettling, twisted, hysterical and finally inexplicable ride offered here. This is one of those films that won’t please everyone, but everyone will want to talk about. You’d be crazy to miss it. Charles Gant