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MOVIE REVIEW: Mother!

Garth Cremona (RIP)

Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer star in what Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky calls a Horror film.  Lawrence and Bardem are living an idyllic life in the middle of nowhere, just the two of them, in a house that she has restored from ruins.  Two strangers show up and Bardem, who is a writer, takes a shine to them but Lawrence is confused as to why they are there and what they want.

A long time ago Darren Aronofsky had planned on making a Batman Movie, it sounded like it would take the dark knight into a different direction and that’s never a bad thing.  Things didn’t work out and we got Nolans Dark Knight trilogy.  So swings and roundabouts!  We also got Dark Swan too and that was a really interesting reveal of the Ballet world and a psychological walk into a dancers mind.  When I heard that he was making Mother, and that it was a horror, I rubbed my hands together with glee and did a little happy dance, which is never that easy for me.

Mother for the first hour of the film lead me to believe that I was in for a 1970’s style horror, more psychological than slasher, which is never a problem, and Darren nails that feeling.  The isolation and performances from the four main stars brings you to the point where you can’t wait for the pay off at the end of the film.  That is the end of all that is good about this film.

I know that some people will love this film, others will hate it with a passion, but I think that most people won’t have any emotion about this film.  I hate it.  It disappointed me, and I hate being disappointed, it drains me emotionally to feel like that.  Don’t tell me that I don’t get what he is trying to do here, I get the first half of the film, I get the imagery and tones.  I understand that the symbology of the characters and how they would translate into the world of religion and our planet.  It’s just not done in any way that makes sense to the film or the first part of the movie.  Needlessly trying to be controversial and overly chaotic storytelling just feels like Darren is trying to make an intellectual horror that only he would understand.

Like Knight of Cups last year, which I gave the zero mark, I would have done the same here but the camera work, the set up, and the performances of Harris, Lawrence, Pfeiffer, and Bardem are great.  But the second half of the film is to pseudo psychological, and lacks any story.  Adding to this that the opening moments of the film just ruined the ending for me anyway I cannot forgive one amazing talent of a writer/director for doing this.  I was promised a psychological horror and was given a mess and told that I should love it.  I didn’t.  I wouldn’t pay a penny into the cinema to watch this, there are far more adequate movies coming out this month, just adequate not amazing that I’d rather support than this.  I would avoid it like the plague, actually I would rather walk into the black death than watch this again, it would be better.  It’s like getting the best ingredients for your death row meal served to you on a dirty diaper.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writer: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer & MORE See full cast & crew

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Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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