Mother! (2017) Review - Dylan McCully

Written by Dylan McCully, 10/16/22

Mother!!!!!!!!!! tries to be deep, which it fails completely at, turning into a unintentional parody of an unsettling film. The only truely disturbing thing about it is that it went through the mundane tasks of film production and actually got released. Visual metaphors are something that we saw a lot of from Aronofsky in Black Swan, and instead of being an interesting part of a stronger story, they are the entire story. The violence and shocking moments in the movie lose their impact when there is no gravitas in the script or from the actors.

Him, played by Javier Bardem, writes a house into existance, with Mother, played by Jennifer Lawrence, living with him. Mother feels and sees a heart in the walls of the house, meaning that it's alive in some way. Man, and then Woman eventually come into the house. Their kids get there too, and eventually, one of the siblings kills the other one. You don't need a conspiracy theorist to tell you that these are the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Eventually, a bunch of more people show up. I hate to admit it because out of context it sounds wrong, but the movie is so forceful in its stupidity, that I burst out laughing when they eat Mother's baby. Way too campy a scene for a movie that's trying to be important.

The anti-subtle method that Aronofsky takes here is what I've been trying to criticize throughout most of his films. I will lazily quote myself from my review of his latest film, The Whale, because it applies even more here: "...one can tell the difference between a true, top-tier director like Scorsese and someone like Aronofsky. Scorsese or someone like Godard would give infinite reasons for a filmmaking decision and go into depth about their films and cinema as a whole. Aronofsky just doesn't go as deep as some of the best, which doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but still counts when talking about him as a director or one of his films in a critical sense." Jennifer Lawrence is a bland actress who delivers lines like she's reading them for the first time. She shouldn't be leading, especially in big pictures, she should be supporting if she's lucky. I could see her being the lead in a Lifetime movie, but highest paid actress in the world? Her range is nonexistant. Every word she says sounds bland, even if she isn't speaking. The only reason I put Mother!!!!!!!!!? above Noah in my ranking is because Noah is bland and boring, which is worse than being offensively bad. "People will feel something during this" is the biggest compliment I can give. 3.5/10

Aronofsky Ranking: 1. The Wrestler (2008) - 8/10 2. Requiem for a Dream (2000) - 7/10 3. Black Swan (2010) - 6.5/10 4. The Fountain (2006) - 5.5/10 5. Pi (1998) - 5.5/10

6. Mother! - 3.5/10 7. Noah (2014) - 2/10