Mother!
18 cert, 121 min A fevered allegory of humans versus nature, a grotesque creation myth mash-up, and a psychological horror set inside an introvert’s worst nightmare – Mother! absolutely isn’t for everyone, yet the film’s greatness is beyond doubt.
As so often with Darren Aronofsky’s work, it is a mad, transfixing thunder-crash that bowls you over in the moment, but which keeps squirming away under your skin for days. Mother! plays out within the confines of a grand mansion in the centre of a meadow inhabited by two nameless characters: a young housewife (Jennifer Lawrence) and her older husband (Javier Bardem). One day, a strange man (Ed Harris) arrives, whom Bardem welcomes with open arms. The next day, the man’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up, and likewise makes herself at home. Further uninvited guests appear and, from there, things go symphonically berserk.
Lawrence’s soft youthfulness is all too apparent as the camera keeps leaning in to scrutinise her face, watching her unease bloom into dread, then dread rot into panic. She’s exceptional, and her incomprehension and distress fast become your own.
A sick joke, an urgent warning and a scream from the abyss,
Mother! earns its exclamation mark three times over and more.