The movie theatre was filled with people wanting to see the horror film everyone was watching this weekend: "It." Alas, for the second time, the movie was sold out by the time I got there. After debate on whether or not to wait over two hours for the next show time, it was decided my friends and I would see "Mother!" instead.
Going into this film, very little was known about the plot or purpose of "Mother!" The trailers revealed little information other than clearly expressing that the movie was a horror. Boy, did they deliver on the horror. It was filled with well-known actors. Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, and Michelle Pfieffer.
You ever wondered what The Giving Tree would be like if it was made into a rated R movie? Yeah, me neither, but that’s exactly what "mother!" Is.
The first quarter of the film is filled with eerie silence. The whole film in itself technically is because there is no soundtrack. It begins with a house, charred and damaged by a fire. Then, there is a shot of Bardem’s character placing an oddly shaped crystal onto a statue. And like magic, the whole house is rejuvenated. The black fades back into color and it returns to a state of prosperity.
We follow Jennifer Lawrence throughout the movie. She is a housewife, significantly younger than her spouse. He is a writer who is struggling to start his next big piece. She gives everything to him, does everything for him, and even states she rebuilt the entire house after a fire (Is it the fire from before? Stay tuned).
"Mother!" moves slowly, but maintains the audience with these constant moments of oddity and behaviors that don’t quite line up until you know what the film is about. When a guest arrives at the couple’s home, (an older man) he claims he has mistaken their house for a Bed and Breakfast. Bardem’s character welcomes him with open arms and invites him to stay the night. He doesn’t take his wife aside and ask what she thinks. He just makes the decision to trust a complete stranger.
The visitor maintains a nasty cough in his time there. Lawrence wakes up in the middle of the night to find her husband missing from the bed. She walks to the guest room where the visitor is staying and finds him leaning over a toilet, coughing, with her husband by his side. There is a terrible wound on the visitor’s back, like a piece of flesh is missing. When Lawrence asks what’s wrong, Bardem tells her that everything is fine and slams the door in her face. The next morning, the two men act as if it never happened.
Tokens such as this continue to appear, keeping the viewer’s interest despite the slow pace. However, the shining moment doesn’t happen until the very end of the film. In the last half hour, the calm pace that has been established is eradicated by a flood of violence. More and more people come to the house, all to visit the writer. They praise him, worship him, and they begin to make their way into the house. From then on, it all goes to hell. People are fighting, going into private rooms, stealing stuff from the house. That’s only the very beginning.
What happens in the last half an hour of "Mother!" is something a person can only experience by watching it. The intensity in every second kept me on the edge of my seat, whilst making me wish I had gone home instead.Despite the horror, my advice is to go see "Mother!" Especially if you enjoy horror. Especially if you enjoy trying to figure out the deeper meaning behind a movie. If you have seen "Mother!" and have yet to figure out the film’s true intent, I highly recommend looking it up. When I found out, my mind was blown by how brilliantly written and reflective the movie was. Every character has a purpose, every scene becomes contemplative, and every oddly shaped crystal gains a whole new meaning.
