mother! (2017)

☆ ☆ ½

mother!  (2017) – D. Aronofsky

After hearing that it was shocking and could be the worst film ever, I was excited to see director Darren Aronofsky’s latest film.  After all, Black Swan (2010) and Requiem for a Dream (2000) were certainly full on and intense and unforgettable and Pi (1998) was a great debut.  The Wrestler (2008) was a surprisingly good Mickey Rourke comeback film. However, I remember being less enamoured of The Fountain (2006) and I guess I must have skipped Noah (2014), not even realising it was Aronofsky.  So, my expectations were high for Mother!  However, I found it extremely pretentious (once I watched the special feature that clued me in to the allegory undergirding the plot).  I’m not sure things would have been different if I “got it” earlier but this was rather deadly dull for the first ¾ or so.  I hoped for some supernatural element to appear (given the poster’s evocation of Rosemary’s Baby) and the decision to keep the camera close to Jennifer Lawrence’s head and shoulders, making it difficult to see what she is looking at or what is around her, led me to think that there would be horror afoot.  Her relationship with Javier Bardem – and his suspicious behaviour – also seemed ominous.  When rude guests Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer show up, it’s threatening – but also pretty annoying.  And the film progresses from there, with Lawrence increasingly bewildered and irritated.  And so was I – my expectations were dashed.  Aronofsky may have had a fever dream from which the script emerged but it feels a lot more heavy-handed than it should (pretentious and trying vainly to shock).  Yes, there’s a message here but it’s simplistic and incoherent in the main.  Too bad.