Mother! (2017)

Darren Aronofsky has an ability to delve into the universe of complex themes and create stories that are packed with metaphors and symbolism. His darkly attractive style of lucid despondency and furious intentions has made his cinema one of the most uniquely inspiring and eclectic in contemporary film.

Mother! (2017), reached a new and fresh crescendo of the director’s iconic stylization. The film is blending elements from all of his previous works such as Black Swan (2010), Requiem for a dream (2000), and Pi (1998). Treading in the footsteps of Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Repulsion (1965) and Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel (1962); Aronofsky created a cacophony of bone-chilling nerves and bleeding hearts. Multiple viewings and discussions may not be enough to cover the wellspring of mystery, sentiment, and allusion that the director manages to evoke with Mother!.

It all takes place in the middle of nowhere. We contemplate the insides of an enigmatic, half-finished Victorian mansion. Inside, a famous poet known as “Him” (Javier Bardem), suffers writer’s block. He lives with his beautiful young wife, identified as “Her” (Jennifer Lawrence). She is dedicated to rebuild the old house that was destroyed by a big fire recently. The couple’s quiet life is interrupted when a mysterious character introduced as “Man” (Ed Harris), knocks on the door one night. The man is looking for a place to stay. He immediately praises the poet’s writing and quickly befriends him, much to the discontent of his wife. The next day, “Woman” (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives. During the following days, the poet receives the rest of the man’s family, completely ignoring his wife’s objections and wishes.

“Who are these people?” she asks him. She never gets a clear answer. We only know that they are huge fans of the poet’s work. This puts us in a position where we can analyze the clues and figure out who everybody is, the poet and his wife included. Or, if not quite who they are, then at least what they are trying to represent.

The wife spends most of the movie in close-ups that reveal complete anxiety. New strangers keep coming into her house, and she wants them to leave, but they won’t. They do bizarre things and ask weird questions. Every basic need and desire that the wife expresses goes unheeded as she continues to do the emotional labour for everyone who enters the house. The film moves further and further into her psychosis, until you’re not thinking about the logic of what’s going on anymore, but only the feelings.

In Mother!, Aronofsky summarizes humanity’s history in a bold, original and unexpected trail. The plot’s undertones spin around genesis and biblical references. Bardem’s character is a poet that finds no inspiration, referring to God before the creation of man and woman. Meanwhile, Lawrence’s character represents Mother Nature: she rebuilds and gives life to the house, lifting it from ashes. Hence comes the story of Eve, Adam, and Cain & Abel, whose characters demonstrate devotion and respect to the character of Bardem.

The story separates the acts of Mother Earth from those of God. There is overcrowding in the house of Mother Earth: insane amounts of overpopulation, wars and hatred. The place starts to get dirty and destroyed because of contamination and the depraved behavior of people. At one point, Mother Nature shakes the house and kills several of the worshipers, symbolizing natural disasters and those acts beyond the control of humanity. These acts are independent of God, they are reactions of Mother Earth to protect herself. Therein lies the filmmaker’s real experiment, making humanity witness its own self-destructive, erratic, unjustified, bizarre and often incomprehensible behavior.

Aronofsky’s film is a bold, polemic and unforgettable experience. There’s a lot going on in this highly sub-textual and allegorical story. Mother! is a dark nightmare that also touches on the difficulties of marriage, birth, death, and the creative process. It is brilliant, horrifying, dreamlike, and highly ambitious. Chances are you’ll be trying, in vain, to get it off your mind and out of your own dreams for some time to come.

In Oscar Wilde‘s words: “They’ve promised that dreams can come true – but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.”

by Octavio Carbajal González