MOTHER!

US, 2017, 120 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnal Gleeson, Kristin Wiig.
Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Reviews in response to Mother! have been quite polarised. Some headings have stated: “love it or loathe it�. Definitely!

It is quite a complicated film, something to be expected from its writer-director who over a 20 year period has made such films as Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan – and, more straightforwardly, The Wrestler. Darren Aronofsky is not afraid to take his audiences into the realms of imagination and fantasy and the complex world of allegory.

If one were to be asked what the film is about, it is easy to say that it is about a husband-and-wife setting up a house, she repairing and restructuring it, he a writer enjoying some seclusion. He invites people to stay. There is a family altercation with his visitors and, consequently, more and more people come to the house with strange results. But that is not even the half of it!

In looking at the final credits, we see that the cast are not named with personal names but with designations. Jennifer Lawrence is Mother. Javier Bardem is Him. Taking Him as a clue leads us into all kinds of speculations, especially religious. Aronofski has no hesitation in setting up many religious connotations.

Since his previous film was a biblical saga, Noah, religious concepts, the Judeo- Christian tradition has been strong in his consciousness.

The film begins and ends with a spectacular fire, death, the finding of a glass heart in the fire and its being set up as a shrine. It seems as if the world we have been invited into is cyclic. And the beginning and the end are apocalyptic, apocalyptic fire, destruction and potential renewal or cruel recycling and repetition.

Since the husband of the narrative is designated as Him, it is easy to make a God reference. Him is creative, has moments of writer’s block, seeks stimulation by sharing other’s stories, inviting them into his home. Mother is younger, is loving, wants a child, eventually becomes pregnant. She can be seen as something of an earth mother/Virgin Mary figure, giving birth to a child to great acclaim but to destruction. The Judaeo- Christian references are there and open to interpretation.

One of the main speculations is whether the film is religious or anti-religious, whether it is theist or anti-theist. Him seems good but seems also to be self-absorbed, loving Mother but also cruel to her. His creation is beautiful but spasmodic. And, one might also speculate that the couple played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer (Michelle Pfeiffer giving almost a masterclass on haughty malice) are like Adam and Eve with a sudden intrusion into their new hope for Paradise by their two clashing sons, with Cain and Abel results.

In the religious/anti-religious speculations, the film has a great deal to show about cult, cult-figures, fans and fanatics, committed disciples, irrational disciples, the madness of putting people on pedestals and knocking them off.

So, while the above can be considered as a review, it is very much a rumination about a film that is often wildly imaginative, sometimes delirious in its action and visual style, a dream allegory of our world.

1. The reputation of the film? Loving or loathing?

2. The credentials: the director, the cast?

3. Realism? Fantasy? Interaction between the two?

4. The film as religious? Anti-religious? Reliance on the Judaeo- Christian tradition and images? Stories? Apocalyptic?

5. The title? The character of Mother, the !? Him? Designations of characters rather than names?

6. The opening, apocalyptic, fire, mother being destroyed, the house? The glass in the ashes? The setting up of the shrine? The end and the recurrence of these events? Mother and her heart? The heart of glass emerging and enshrined? The cyclic nature of the story?

7. The introduction to the couple, as real? The marriage, the difference in age, their experience, no children? The house burned down, the visuals of the ruins and ashes? The repair? Details of the repair, the walls, the paint? The creativity, the author and his writer’s block? The relationship of husband and wife? Happiness? And the domestic details?

8. The isolation of the house, the view of the house from outside? But the focus on the interiors, an interiors drama?

9. The doctor, his sudden arrival, unannounced, his story, research? Needing somewhere to stay? Imposing or not? Smoking, inside and out? The wife upset? The husband inviting him in, the chatting during the night, drinking, his being sick, the cigarette butts, his recovery, staying? The two men bonding? Their going for the walk and leaving the wife?

10. The doctor’s wife arriving, her being haughty and demanding, relationship with her husband, presuming to stay, her interactions with her husband, her interactions with the couple? The effect of her staying, her critical comments, on the painting of the house, intruding on privacy, their breaking the heart of glass, the discussions about children, burning her hand, her snooping and going into the office?

11. The effect on each of the couple? He being stimulated, she being upset? The nights, sleep, noise?

12. The sudden entry of the sons, barging in, quarrelling? The issue of the will, of the inheritance? The four shouting and fighting? The back story to the clash (Cain and Abel)? The wife and her anxiety? The fight, one son hitting the other, killing him, their all leaving, going to the hospital, the husband going? She remaining, scrubbing the floor, her fears, her husband’s plausible responses to all her anxieties?

13. A growing unreality, the blood on the floor, the stain, chipping away at the floor, going downstairs, chipping away at the wall, the cavernous spaces?

14. The return, the family barging in, taking over, the celebration of the dead son, the drinking, the speeches, the memorials? The husband being absorbed? Reassuring his wife?

15. The effect on her, changing her clothes, coming down, being ordered to change? The haughtiness of the doctor’s wife, treatment? The members of the family, talking?

16. The range of guests, the number, taking over, going upstairs, the rooms and flirting, the wife ordering them down, wanting them to leave? Her being accosted, the food, more and more people, the creation of the mess? The couple sitting on the sink and crashing?

17. The ousting, her being upset? Talking, the sexual encounter – and the possibility of pregnancy?

18. The husband being inspired, writing, time passing, the parchment, her being pregnant, their life together, finishing his work?

19. Her reading it, the beauty? The phone call, the agent already having the manuscript?

20. The people coming to the door, queuing, wanting autographs, the hailing the poet, celebrating him? The greater crowds, like disciples, the formation of a cult? Photos, the agent and her wanting control, ordering the wife around? The wife and her bewilderment, the growing chaos, inside and out?

21. The crowds, the destruction and demolishing? She pregnant, the dangers, the fear of giving birth? Her husband’s reaction? Her being locked in the room, giving birth? Unconsciousness, the aftermath? The collapse, his taking the baby, everybody touching the baby and passing it along, its death?

22. The culmination, apocalyptic, the destroying of the house? She, the fire, her dying, her face, the glass taken from her heart? Enshrined?

23. The recycling and the new wife?

24. The credits and the religious implications of the identification of the characters by designations, especially the earth mother? Him – a divine designation? And the agent as the Herald…?