For me the act of watching a horror film should be unpleasant. I should still get enjoyment from the experience, but it’s one I shouldn’t want to endure again. I missed mother! when it released in 2017 and so waited until I could pick it up on Blu-Ray to watch it. It’s one of the few films I’m extremely glad that I missed out on in the cinema, because despite thinking that mother! is an outstanding film, it’s a truly nerve shattering experience that I don’t think I could have endured on the big screen.
Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a married couple. Bardem a former poet who's writing is adored by many who eagerly await his next work. Lawrence, his wife who has devoted herself to rebuilding her husband's childhood home after a horrific fire destroyed it many years earlier. But when a dying fan (Ed Harris) arrives at the house with his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), they begin to destroy everything that Lawrence has created out of their devotion to and love of Bardem.
There’s no denying that mother! is a divisive film. It’s intentionally vague and meandering in an attempt to disorientate the viewer and build anxiety. For some, like myself, this incredibly intense and unpleasant experience blossoms into a true masterpiece once you have the time to reflect on the film; but it’s easy to see why some may see mother! as pretentious and needlessly cruel.
If it’s answers you’re after, you won’t get them by watching the film. There’s no moment where all the pieces fall into place, and there most certainly isn’t a nice little ribbon to tie everything together neatly. mother! is disparate and confusing, and that makes the intensely uncomfortable viewing experience all the better.
I won’t place my theories of what I believe the film to be about in this review. But despite its seemingly dreamlike structure, mother! is an allegory for something. You may find it a deeply personal experience, or like myself you may find it an almost darkly comedic representation of a story that many people the world over are familiar with.
Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a married couple. Bardem a former poet who's writing is adored by many who eagerly await his next work. Lawrence, his wife who has devoted herself to rebuilding her husband's childhood home after a horrific fire destroyed it many years earlier. But when a dying fan (Ed Harris) arrives at the house with his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), they begin to destroy everything that Lawrence has created out of their devotion to and love of Bardem.
There’s no denying that mother! is a divisive film. It’s intentionally vague and meandering in an attempt to disorientate the viewer and build anxiety. For some, like myself, this incredibly intense and unpleasant experience blossoms into a true masterpiece once you have the time to reflect on the film; but it’s easy to see why some may see mother! as pretentious and needlessly cruel.
If it’s answers you’re after, you won’t get them by watching the film. There’s no moment where all the pieces fall into place, and there most certainly isn’t a nice little ribbon to tie everything together neatly. mother! is disparate and confusing, and that makes the intensely uncomfortable viewing experience all the better.
I won’t place my theories of what I believe the film to be about in this review. But despite its seemingly dreamlike structure, mother! is an allegory for something. You may find it a deeply personal experience, or like myself you may find it an almost darkly comedic representation of a story that many people the world over are familiar with.
To compound the anxiety of the narrative, cinematographer Matthew Libatique never allows the frame to breathe. You’re always in close, usually following Lawrence’s character over the shoulder, or staring directly into her face. But those rare moments where Lawrence isn’t in frame are still extremely claustrophobic or otherwise disorientating. The house is a maze and trying to discern some kind of structural continuity is difficult because of how the film has been cut together. Perhaps this is why I found it such an uncomfortable experience, because I often couldn’t find my place within the building.
Even then, the subtle use of digital effects to give the house an appearance of being alive, reacting to the woman’s mental state, threw me off even more. Thing’s rarely looked the same, and with the constant barrage of new arrivals, particularly in the films final act, none of whom seem to have any regard for the woman or the house, make mother! feel like a surreal fever dream. I’ve had nightmares like mother!, strangers in my house unwilling to leave, damaging the safe space I have built; and to see that vividly come to life on screen is uncomfortable and upsetting.
Lawrence’s performance is superb, one of the finest of her career. This must have been an exhausting shoot for her as she’s just in perpetual panic. But the way Lawrence’s performance is balanced against Bardem’s is what makes it so special. He’s an artist so in love with everything he sees, but she is supposed to be the thing he loves above all else and he’s neglecting her and allowing her to be attacked by all these strangers in their home. Her genuine panic and his arrogant calm just make the film so agonisingly hard to watch.
Pfeiffer also delivers a knockout performance. She’s just so vindictive and nasty, but yet you just want to see more of her. She kind of disappears in the second half of the film once things kick into high gear, but for the first half she manages to act as a real villain of the story.
Despite having written eight hundred words about it, mother! is beyond description. It is an experience that must be endured and survived, not just read or seen. It’s a film that deserves your full attention, and if you give it that you’ll be rewarded with one of the most distressing films of the twenty first century. If you’re after a film with jump scares, scary images, or blood and gore then mother! is not going to scratch that itch, but if you want to be made to feel incredibly uncomfortable and extremely distressed then you really can’t do any better.
Even then, the subtle use of digital effects to give the house an appearance of being alive, reacting to the woman’s mental state, threw me off even more. Thing’s rarely looked the same, and with the constant barrage of new arrivals, particularly in the films final act, none of whom seem to have any regard for the woman or the house, make mother! feel like a surreal fever dream. I’ve had nightmares like mother!, strangers in my house unwilling to leave, damaging the safe space I have built; and to see that vividly come to life on screen is uncomfortable and upsetting.
Lawrence’s performance is superb, one of the finest of her career. This must have been an exhausting shoot for her as she’s just in perpetual panic. But the way Lawrence’s performance is balanced against Bardem’s is what makes it so special. He’s an artist so in love with everything he sees, but she is supposed to be the thing he loves above all else and he’s neglecting her and allowing her to be attacked by all these strangers in their home. Her genuine panic and his arrogant calm just make the film so agonisingly hard to watch.
Pfeiffer also delivers a knockout performance. She’s just so vindictive and nasty, but yet you just want to see more of her. She kind of disappears in the second half of the film once things kick into high gear, but for the first half she manages to act as a real villain of the story.
Despite having written eight hundred words about it, mother! is beyond description. It is an experience that must be endured and survived, not just read or seen. It’s a film that deserves your full attention, and if you give it that you’ll be rewarded with one of the most distressing films of the twenty first century. If you’re after a film with jump scares, scary images, or blood and gore then mother! is not going to scratch that itch, but if you want to be made to feel incredibly uncomfortable and extremely distressed then you really can’t do any better.