Mother! (2017)
Dir. Darren Aronofsky
I wanted to love Mother! because on paper, it is exactly the kind of film I should be obsessed with: biblical allegory, psychological horror, an increasingly hostile house, and Jennifer Lawrence losing her mind. But unfortunately, I found myself more frustrated than fascinated.
Darren Aronofsky clearly wants the film to feel overwhelming. The camera rarely gives you room to breathe, the house becomes increasingly claustrophobic, and the chaos keeps escalating until everything completely falls apart. I understood what the film was doing, but understanding the metaphor didn’t necessarily make me enjoy watching it.
My biggest issue is that the allegory felt so obvious that I stopped engaging with the characters as people and started waiting for the next symbolic beat. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is committed, but I never felt emotionally attached to her character beyond watching her endure increasingly ridiculous circumstances.
There’s something interesting buried underneath all the biblical imagery about creation, exploitation, ego, and the destruction of women, but Mother! felt more exhausting than revelatory to me.
Maybe I’m just not an Aronofsky girl.
